


The Jam Jar

by Berd_Alert (Cassa_of_the_fans), excessThinking (Nobodyhasblindedme)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Demons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Biting, Body Horror, Canon Universe, Character Death, Child Abuse, Dark Fantasy, Drugged Sex, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Escapism, Eugenics, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Fighting Ring, Flower Symbolism, Future Fic, Ghosts, Hal is a serial killer and his method is unrequited love, Hanahaki Disease, Homophobic Language, Horror, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Lovecraftian Monster(s), M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Multi, Mutilation, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Other, Polyamory, Queerplatonic Relationships, RP Style, Rape/Non-con Elements, Recovery, Royalty, Serial Killers, Sibling Incest, Supervillains, Surgery, Terminal Illnesses, The Horrorterrors (Homestuck), Trans Dave Strider, Trolls on Earth (Homestuck), Vampire Sex, Vampire Turning, incubus dave strider, jam Session, no editing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:21:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 72,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22638340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cassa_of_the_fans/pseuds/Berd_Alert, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nobodyhasblindedme/pseuds/excessThinking
Summary: This is potentially going to be a VE R  Y long series of drabbles/one-shots/rps/ jams. As it says on the series title, lol. These are going to be a collection of unedited idea jams that while are too good to just keep to ourselves, never quite go on to be fics (yet.)All the chapters will be in this log format taken directly from discord and posted here.All jams are free to use as inspiration or adapted into other Fanwork. If you do end up using any concepts, please show us, we would love to see it.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Equius Zahhak, Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Dirk Strider/Kankri Vantas, Jake English/Dirk Strider
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17
Collections: The Jam Jar





	1. Porcelain Prince

**Author's Note:**

> Dave lives in a world that was made for him, with just his friends to keep him company on the island of toys. 
> 
> If only his friends weren't toys too and himself swiftly becoming less then human.

CassaYesterday at 10:49 PM  
Cursed prince in a cursed kingdom. Everyone, except for a few caretakers, is an inanimate toy, and the prince, tho still human, is slowly turning to porcelain  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 10:50 PM  
that's dark  
did you have a plot or is this open  
CassaYesterday at 10:50 PM  
Nope just that  
Also the aesthetic is still bright and fun  
:)))  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 10:51 PM  
of course  
bc toys  
CassaYesterday at 10:51 PM  
One of the caretakers is a stuffed bunny  
It's John  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 10:51 PM  
I think the toys can still talk and still have some level of autonomy, but they also cater unconsciously to Dave's imagination  
ooh  
CassaYesterday at 10:53 PM  
Ye they can't think for themselves except for the bunny (John) a musical box ballerina (rose) and a big dog plushie (Jade)  
Dave's pretty much confined to he quarters, it's about all he can handle walking around  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 10:57 PM  
Rose is his least favorite - she tells him things he doesn't want to hear (but since she's acting from his own mind, it's things he already knows)  
CassaYesterday at 10:58 PM  
He likes John the best because he comforts Dave, but doesn't play rough like Jade  
John sits on his bed most of the time, and lets Dave cuddle him as he sleeps  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 10:59 PM  
Jade lets him ride her when they go outside  
it kinda looks like the Island of Misfit Toys from the rudolph animated special  
CassaYesterday at 10:59 PM  
Ye  
Except the toys just lay there, where they've been placed or left  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:00 PM  
It kinda frightens DAve  
CassaYesterday at 11:00 PM  
He doesn't go outside much  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:01 PM  
hm  
this is making me think this is some kind of curse, or a parent's misguided attempt to protect their child  
CassaYesterday at 11:03 PM  
It is a curse. I think it was placed on Dave when he was young, and now as a teen it's reaching its final stages  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:03 PM  
breaking the curse would probably involve convincing him to leave the place  
which in his mind, he doesn't want to do  
it's a place all for him  
safe  
CassaYesterday at 11:04 PM  
Yeah. It's safe, sure, but it's also killing him  
Imagine Karkat stumbling into this  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:06 PM  
This teenager who basically has the mind of a child living in this eerie, silent place of toys that's influenced entirely by his imagination  
Dave says Karkat mustn't touch him because he could break him  
CassaYesterday at 11:07 PM  
His fingers make ringing sounds whenever they come in contact with something hard  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:07 PM  
the three 'caretakers' insist on Dave's wellbeing  
Karkat knows that it's all just sad bullshit  
he wonders what would happen if he just took dave away  
CassaYesterday at 11:09 PM  
There might be signs that the curse is self inflicted. Like, the throne room downstairs has a wooden puppet in the seat, life sized and reaching out for something, or someone.  
What I'm saying is that Bro tried to hurt him and this was just a reaction  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:12 PM  
I think the palace and the puppet (marionette, maybe) is one of the first clues that this may not all be 'real' per se. Everything else on the island is eerie and silent and very much creepy, but still and mostly peacful. Like a dream, really. The puppet and castle and throneroom are not. While it's inanimate, Karkat still feels like it will come to life at any moment  
Dave says the puppet never wants to play  
CassaYesterday at 11:13 PM  
Oh yikes  
So, what do you think really happened  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:16 PM  
I'm not sure if this should operate in like, Where the Wild Things Are terms where this is Dave having a massive and prolonged panic attack/escapist fantasy and 'Karkat' isn't actually real either, but he comes in when Dave's mind knows it's time to come back to the real world and it's the internal struggle to want to stay locked in a fantasy where you are safe but ultimately unreal and hurting yourself  
bc yeah, Bro probably did hurt him  
hell, this might actually work as a coma theory  
CassaYesterday at 11:17 PM  
It might  
I like that  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:18 PM  
this is also a good au for dirkjake, considering  
CassaYesterday at 11:18 PM  
Oh? Explain  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:18 PM  
Jake's all about escaping into fantaies that cater to him while using them to hide from the rel world that's hurting him  
but Ilike davekat better  
CassaYesterday at 11:19 PM  
Ah ye  
Do you think Dave wakes up?  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:21 PM  
I think at the very end is the emotional climax where doll-dave is breaking down and the castle burns and he throws the puppet off the throne and he wakes before the audience knows if he sits on it, or just walks out of the palace  
he's in hospital  
CassaYesterday at 11:24 PM  
It's late, he's alone in a hospital bed, arms and legs wrapped in bandages. His chest hurts  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:25 PM  
Hm  
Dirk is not Bro in this situation I think  
CassaYesterday at 11:25 PM  
He is not  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:25 PM  
Jane is a nurse who got him a stuffed rabbit from the gift shop downstairs while he was out  
Jake is a guy with a service dog for anxious kids  
Roxy is a musical therapist

CassaYesterday at 11:26 PM  
Djsjs  
Ouch  
How old is he when he wakes up do you think? I say 13-15  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:28 PM  
He's younger then he was perceiving himself in the dream, but older then the child mentality he held onto, yea  
CassaYesterday at 11:28 PM  
Yeah he was seeing himself as 18, 19  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:28 PM  
an internal war with wanting to be older and poweful, but also wanting the simplicity of life as a child  
CassaYesterday at 11:28 PM  
Dirk is his big brother  
Not bro  
But a sibling  
He attends college out of state but came home when he heard his little brother was in a coma  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:30 PM  
their father had gone on a real bender, from something worse then alcohol, and while he beat Dave to unconsciousness, something in the shithole of an apartment caught fire and burned it out. Bro did not survive  
CassaYesterday at 11:33 PM  
Dave barely did, with severe burns and broken bones. He's been comatose for 6 months  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:35 PM  
Dirk (20smething) was given power of attorney and after a month asked seriously if he wanted to..end it when Dave wasn't looking much better  
CassaYesterday at 11:37 PM  
He refused  
He wasn't going to kill his little brother  
What if Karkat was also a pediatric patient who shared a room with Dave  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:39 PM  
A lonely kid who only had his single-parent dad who could barely afford the care he needed and was alone all day most of the time  
he talked to Dave  
bc he read somewhere it's good to talk to coma patients  
CassaYesterday at 11:43 PM  
Karkat had leukemia.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:44 PM  
please tell me he doesn't die and Dave has a friend when he wakes up that he'll always have a weird feeling he's met before  
CassaYesterday at 11:45 PM  
He's in remission when Dave wakes up, living at home. But when he hears that the boy who he shared a room with woke up, he wants to go visit  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:46 PM  
The first thing Dave says when he sees him is "You made me go"  
and promptly forgets what he said  
CassaToday at 12:03 AM  
Baby  
He has some amnesia  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:04 AM  
Dave was already sort of an odd kid  
he keeps getting the feeling he's seen things before  
CassaToday at 12:05 AM  
By the time he's sixteen he still can't sleep without the raggedy Blue Bunny he got at the hospital  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:06 AM  
He also likes the sound of music boxes and tries making them  
he lives wth Dirk now  
CassaToday at 12:07 AM  
They live in California, but Dave always wears long sleeves and long pants.  
(hides the burns)  
Sometimes he has episodes where he can't leave the house, convinced that it will "break him"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:08 AM  
I think part of his face got some bad scarring as well (during the very end of the coma, something happened what ended up 'smashing' the growing porcelain of his face)  
yeah  
Dirk tries to understand, and is told by the people who work with Dave it's some form of dissociation and anxiety  
CassaToday at 12:10 AM  
Dave dissacosciates, A lot. It often ends up that he won't leave his room. Sometimes Dirk can hear him talking in there  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:11 AM  
He's not talking to Kakat, Dirk knows that much. It's people he doesn't know of, and he has checked that Dave's not talking to people like, online or that he doesnt know about  
It's frustrating because Dirk feels like he should be helping him more  
CassaToday at 12:13 AM  
He sets up a camera in Daves room and finds out he's talking to his toys. (He's too old for them, but I also wanna say he was slightly developmentally delayed after the coma)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:15 AM  
He worries about letting this go on because a lot of the conversations don't appear to be helping - Dave is angry a lot and seems frustrated too  
(I wanna say Dave probably wasn't neurotypical to begin with anyway)  
CassaToday at 12:18 AM  
(he wasn't. With the brain damage from the coma it might be causing hallucinations  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:19 AM  
The doctors are also quite frank with Dirk that a lot of those on the Schizophrenic spectrum often have 'breaks' at around Dave's age as well  
Dirk doesn't think it's that, though  
even if a lot of Dave's behaviors are pointing to it  
CassaToday at 12:35 AM  
Dave will basically never be 100% independent  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:36 AM  
Dirk wasn't really prepared for this  
and he feels guilty for not trying harder for Dave. Fighting to get him out of that home  
but if he'd just taken him, he could have gone to jail for kidnapping  
The fact that Dave has Karkat helps  
CassaToday at 12:38 AM  
He loves Karkat, and Karkat gets to know this very sick but also very sweet boy  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:39 AM  
Dave ends up writing a lot, and Karkat likes to read it  
a lot of it is very rambling stuff, but there's some really interesting looks into how he sees the world  
CassaToday at 12:57 AM  
Ye  
He has pretty childish sensibilities, he likes bright colors and soft things and scares very easy  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:59 AM  
He has a very limited diet, he only likes certain things  
Dave does get flashes sometimes of acknowledging outloud how bad he's gotten  
he knows he ought to have his driver's license, be graduating highschool  
CassaToday at 1:03 AM  
He mentions once he wanted to study paelentology (which he phrases as "dig up dinosaurs") and Dirk feels so so guilty  
There's no way Dave can do any of those things. He can barely leave the house without a panic attack  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:04 AM  
They talk to Dave's doctors and therapist and try to work out some kind of tutoring or homeschooling situation  
already, since Dave's public school records show spotty attendance (and Bro pulled him out totally at like, 11) he's got a lot of work to do  
CassaToday at 1:06 AM  
The poor guy can barely write his name  
He'd been held back multiple times because of a combination of negligence and his own disabilities working against him  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:09 AM  
It's even harder now to focus  
and it's not like Dave's unaware  
CassaToday at 1:09 AM  
If anyone pushes him too hard he dissacosciates  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:10 AM  
this has turned into a very interesting au  
CassaToday at 1:10 AM  
It has  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:10 AM  
I'm not sure how much of the coma dream he recalls, if any at all, really  
CassaToday at 1:11 AM  
Some  
Bits and pieces  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:11 AM  
I feel like bright, vivid bits keep coming up  
yea  
CassaToday at 1:11 AM  
It's more subconscious too  
Like he complains of pain in his legs and feet, it's all in his head there's nothing wrong with him, but his body is convinced it's injured. He also sometimes just, refuses to touch things  
ESPECIALLY hot things  
Even if they're only a little warm  
(porcelain shatters when it's heated)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:13 AM  
(poor kid)  
He HATES puppets. Absolutely, no matter what state of mind he's in, refuses to be in the room with them and they're a pretty big trigger for episodes  
CassaToday at 1:14 AM  
Marionettes most of all  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:14 AM  
But, even if he himself can do eye contact, he doesn't like not having others eyes uncovered  
glasses are ok, but sunglasses make him nervous  
CassaToday at 1:15 AM  
It sucks he's probably super light sensitive  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:15 AM  
migraines and vertigo are a normal occurrence  
I do think it would be interesting for Dave's therapist to eventually get some of the internal story from him  
a plot they've built up over lots of sessions, some when Dave was more lucid and others when he might have been actively dissociating  
CassaToday at 1:28 AM  
He rambles about a castle on an island, and turning into porcelain, and the talking toys  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:30 AM  
He does mention the fire, and they figure that since it's the end of the coma dream Dave may have associated being pulled out of the fire in the apartment with finally leaving, or seeing it as the freedom of truly buring down your prison  
Dave is also asked if he plays with fire or if Dirk keeps lighters and matches in the home  
which, to both, is a very vehement no  
CassaToday at 1:41 AM  
Dave, curled up in his chair: Fire is bad. It's dangerous, it's scary. I don't want it near me  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:44 AM  
It makes sense for a bit, after all Dave was burned pretty badly, but he mentioned "it just shatters and it's everywhere and it hurts and it's all jagged and like music box notes and it just hurts." the word 'shattered' gets their attention  
CassaToday at 1:56 AM  
It takes a while for Dave to explain that he thinks he's breakable  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:58 AM  
I'm not any kind of psychologist or in psychology, so I have no idea what they'd do in this sich, but they'd probably try to teach Dave (or Dirk, considering Dave's experiencing a delusion) some grounding techniques  
CassaToday at 1:58 AM  
Ye  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:59 AM  
Dave might also sometimes have a hard time seeing other people he doesn't know well as..well. People.  
When it' bad, it's just more inanimate objects  
CassaToday at 2:02 AM  
Dirk and Karkat are the least Likely to appear that way  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:07 AM  
Dave doesn't really remember Dirk much, both from the amnesia and that Dirk wasn't around much in the house when they were still living with their father  
CassaToday at 2:07 AM  
He knows Dirk takes care of him though  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:08 AM  
Going home with him the first time is rough  
CassaToday at 2:08 AM  
Well yeah. He has no idea where he is  
All his belongings were destroyed in the fire, so it's literally an empty room with a bed and a desk. All he has is his bunny  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:10 AM  
Dirk's all out of sorts - he's had to take time off work, he's juggling all Dave's paperwork from the hospital and learning how to change bandages and schedule follow-up and work with social services..  
neither of them speak to each other much for a week or two  
CassaToday at 2:16 AM  
Dirk finds Dave drawing one night, slow and clumsy, a castle on an island  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:20 AM  
"Oh, that's cool. Did you see that in a book or something?"  
It's a clumsy attempt at connection, and Dave doesn't really answer, but he does let Dirk see some of the other ones a few days later.  
CassaToday at 2:21 AM  
The first time Dave sits in the same room as him Dirk nearly cries  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:22 AM  
They watch mlp together. Dirk complements Dave's taste in fine cinema. Dave just keeps watchi g the show and stroking his rabbits ears  
CassaToday at 2:27 AM  
Childish things are safe  
Even as a young adult, he hates horror, or even gritty action movies, it's too loud and there's too much violence and he just wants something safe and happy  
This unfortunately means he ends up as an animation snob  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:29 AM  
Dirk has seen so many classic Disney shorts it's insane  
Thanks Dave  
CassaToday at 2:30 AM  
So many  
Dave likes Goofy shorts the best  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:31 AM  
Betty Boop (even tho she's not Disney) is also popular  
Loony toons  
CassaToday at 2:31 AM  
Yes  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:31 AM  
(Dirk will never get that theme out of hs head..)  
CassaToday at 2:31 AM  
Oh hes Like me when I was 10 lol  
I watched every loony toons I could get my hands on  
Repeatedly  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:32 AM  
I would watch brother bear and emperor's new groove on loop and could recite them  
CassaToday at 2:32 AM  
BROTHER BEAR IS THE SHIT  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:33 AM  
Again, Dave also likes music but certain kinds (like music box and calliope music) shut him down or set him off  
CassaToday at 2:33 AM  
I mean so is new groove but. Like. Nobody likes brother bear  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:33 AM  
Brother bear was so good..  
CassaToday at 2:33 AM  
Dave's favorite music is guitar. Just instrumental  
Boy Fucking LOVES Coco  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:34 AM  
Dirk will hear him humming the songs to himself  
He also ends up liking Book of Life  
Things get easier as time goes on  
CassaToday at 2:36 AM  
Ye  
Dave is eventually able to move out, and he gets a place with Karkat  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:38 AM  
Dave tells stories he makes up and Karkat writes them  
They eventually publish some kids books  
CassaToday at 2:38 AM  
Dawww


	2. Flowers on the Mountains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a royal bloom is transplanted for her own safety into unknown lands and even more unknown circumstances, will she blossom and grow or wither and wilt into nothingness?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another jam for the jar. A note, the au starts out as being vaguely European in style and aesthetic, but is decided about half-way through to be more eastern-inspired. It's also massive compared to the other one. We're sorry about that. sjfghsfjs

Good morning  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:17 PM  
mornin sunshine  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:17 PM  
Its, still technically mornin lol  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:17 PM  
for u wuw  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:18 PM  
Ye  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:18 PM  
oh, rare backwards typo uwu  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:18 PM  
Shiny  
Capture it  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:18 PM  
tis done  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:18 PM  
I'm thinking about a pastoral Davekat  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:18 PM  
we do love our softness  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:19 PM  
Ye  
But with a twi  
Twis  
TWOST  
Fuck  
You understand  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:19 PM  
ghghghggghh  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:20 PM  
It's also a secret Kingdomstuck  
Dave is a prince  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:20 PM  
k  
we seem to start off a lot of these this way  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:20 PM  
He's in hiding  
I like royal Dave shut up ;p  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:21 PM  
:3  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:21 PM  
So he goes to live with Kats family and has to learn how to actually work for his place  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:21 PM  
ooh  
prince learns what the real world is like  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:22 PM  
Ye  
And get this, falls in love with it. He actually enjoys pushing himself, making things that are useful, preparing his own food and tending their crops. He wants to work hard, and do well  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:24 PM  
He was probably told all his life he was 'frail' and 'sickly' and 'delicate' bc he is smol and p thin and gets tall but not big as he grows up  
his elder brother is the true King, not him  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:25 PM  
Ye  
He takes a vicious kind of pleasure in the signs of his labor. Like when he develops callouses  
Not so delicate anymore  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:27 PM  
It helps build confidence too  
and scope  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:27 PM  
Ye!  
Also this might be a good idea for a trans Dave who transitions over the course of the story  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:28 PM  
omg yes  
royaly: overly concerned with appearence, grace, the tiniest emote can mean like, war if you're not careful  
karkat's fam: HEY YOU FUCKER, PASS THE GODDADMNED BREAD OR YOUR NAME'S MUD  
I like the idea of a lorge vantas-captor-leijon family  
I'm not saying DAve has to be overly masculine, but it's more like karkat's family doesn't care how Dave presents as long as he does his work and isn't an idiot  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:31 PM  
Ye  
There is definitely a scene tho where Dave cuts off all his hair and demands a pair of pants  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:33 PM  
Signless: Alright, I think some of Sollux's might fit you  
Sollux: you'll have to kill me for em  
Signless: good natured dad laugh he's mostly joking! You...you'd better put your all in, though  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:35 PM  
Dave fights Sollux then and there  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:36 PM  
Nepeta giggles that Dave's hair looks better then Karkat's and her stupid brother actually tries to cut it nice  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:54 PM  
Dave is stupid proud of his choppy, uneven haircut  
It's his  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:55 PM  
Not coifed, not over-washed and tended. Not long enough that when it's down it's past his rear and so ungainly  
by the end of his time with the family, his own will wonder who this stranger is  
CassaLast Wednesday at 2:56 PM  
They will tut and say she's lost her way, but he isn't going to listen to them anymore  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 2:58 PM  
He'll tell them they've got their heirs - Dirk and Rose are more then willing to take up the necessary reigns. He's just a spare who moreover doesn't want much to do wuth the monarchy  
CassaLast Wednesday at 3:02 PM  
He gets in trouble multiple times for helping servants  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 3:03 PM  
Lifting his own things, stealing Dirk's clothes. He still reads and studies, but he refuses servants to dress him and wash him, thanks much.  
CassaLast Wednesday at 3:11 PM  
Someone finds him in the kitchen teaching a scullery maid how to clean dishes without cracking them  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 3:12 PM  
They're never sure why Dirk allows it  
CassaLast Wednesday at 3:12 PM  
Dirk supports his little brother  
And also just can't be bothered  
Someone suggests that Dave grow out his hair again and that person gets decked  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 3:16 PM  
someone: YOUR MAJESTY, THE YOUNG LADY DOVE IS-  
Dirk, already drawing sword: I'm sorry, who?  
CassaLast Wednesday at 3:16 PM  
Oh you use Dove? I use Dawn lol  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 3:17 PM  
mostly bc bird associations lol  
CassaLast Wednesday at 3:17 PM  
Ah it's cute  
Also only one vowel difference from Dave  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 3:18 PM  
He probably used it as an intersex name when he started transitioning, but Nepeta or Karkat got the name wrong once and he was like 'fuck it, it me now'  
CassaLast Wednesday at 3:31 PM  
Fhsjsj  
Iconic  
CassaLast Wednesday at 3:47 PM  
I think The Vantas-captor-leijon family might weave cloth. At least the leijons do  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 3:48 PM  
They're quite the little clan  
THey do a lot of things  
apothecary, cloth weaving, fruit preserves to sell, some brewing  
There is never time to rest from spring to autumn  
CassaLast Wednesday at 3:49 PM  
Winter is spent keeping warm and making sure their animals are well fed  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 3:50 PM  
It's the first time DAve is introduced to real cider  
he's only had wines and liquors up until this point  
CassaLast Wednesday at 3:50 PM  
They probably share beds in winter too  
Because it's cold  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 3:51 PM  
oh god, THAT was an experience for Dave. He didn't have to if he was really uncomfortable, but the only other place to sleep was the sitting room  
CassaLast Wednesday at 3:58 PM  
Nepeta is v understanding  
But it means they're warm most nights, so Dave gets over it  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:04 PM  
He does like the winter clothes  
he learns how to shear a sheep - and how hard it is  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:05 PM  
He also learns how to spin thread. He's not very good at that  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:05 PM  
in return he does teach the kids to read and write a bit better  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:06 PM  
He has v nice handwriting  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:06 PM  
they know numbers for keeping track of some things, but there's not much time for books except in the winter, and then it's all oral traditions  
He likes to journal  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:07 PM  
He has a notebook he tries to write in every day  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:08 PM  
gradually it fills up with more then notes  
leaves and flowers pressed between the pages, poems by nepeta, some of karkat and sign's stories  
the first bracelet he ever made himself  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:10 PM  
He also gets less reserved in his writing  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:10 PM  
ironically, his journals were never his personal space  
sure, he was told to write whatever he liked, but his tutors would ask to read it  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:16 PM  
Now, with no one looking over his shoulder he can write whatever he wants.   
One day, he writes down "I think I'm in love with Karkat Vantas"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:18 PM  
It causes him to panic a little, bc 'what if someone reads it' but no one here doesb  
It's a secret  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:22 PM  
It stops being a secret at one of the summer holidays, because Dave kisses him and pushes a little bottle of liquor (very rare luxury for their family) into his hands before running off  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:25 PM  
Dave: and that's the story of how I died  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:25 PM  
Djdjjssk  
He doesn't die  
It might be right before he goes back to the palace  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:26 PM  
Something sweet to end the year with  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:27 PM  
Yes  
Eventually I think he goes back to the farm  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:28 PM  
No one can really question , bc Dave wasn't that big in the political rings anyway  
True, there ARE some suitors our there chaising their tails  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:29 PM  
Dave has no interest in them  
When he shows up again Karkat is Furious  
He left without explanation  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:30 PM  
Ooh boy  
He said he was planning to return the kiss, and the gift, you know.  
He knew Dave couldnt stay forever, but that didn't mean he got to just - just LEAVE like he didnt even care  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:33 PM  
Dave apologizes profusely  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:34 PM  
Karkat demands another kiss. As payment for this crime  
"still not done being angry though"  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:35 PM  
Dave laughs and kisses him  
They get married the next spring  
The family helps them Build a little cottage on the property  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:37 PM  
Captors: bees  
Davekat: bees?   
Captors:THEY HAVE SELECTED BEES   
angry buzzing and various screaming  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:37 PM  
Captors are beekeepers lol  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:37 PM  
Yes  
Dave had never been stung until then  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:38 PM  
He did not expect it to hurt quite so much  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:39 PM  
Dave: it's just a little prick, look, it's so tiny  
Mituna: poison in there   
Dave: w-KAAJAJAJSJSJAKAKAKAKAKA  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:40 PM  
Mituna stop terrorizing your brother in law  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:41 PM  
They're all such assholes I love themm  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:42 PM  
Ye  
OH! Dave trying spicy food for the first time  
Literally everything the family eats is at least a little spicy  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:43 PM  
Dave's taste buds cannot comprehend  
Altjough, he might surprise them by qceually eating a hot pepper like 'yeah this is fine'  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:45 PM  
Yesss  
Boy is like "I'm never eating anything else again  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 4:46 PM  
Jjddj  
CassaLast Wednesday at 4:48 PM  
Court food is fancy, but overall kind of bland and fussy and there's always too much  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 5:04 PM  
Dave hated court dinners  
CassaLast Wednesday at 5:04 PM  
Oh yes  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 5:04 PM  
Too long. Too much talking about things he really couldnt give a rats arse about  
And he HAS to be there for appearence's sake  
(I will be back, work)  
CassaLast Wednesday at 5:05 PM  
Kk  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:27 PM  
Is back for a bit  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:41 PM  
Sorry I missed you  
CassaLast Wednesday at 8:54 PM  
Please imagine the disaster of Dave learning to bake  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:25 PM  
Just, flower everywhere  
Flour  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:30 PM  
His faves are apple tarts  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:32 PM  
Yess  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:41 PM  
The family doesn't have a big oven for lots of things - that's the baker in town  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:42 PM  
But they make their own bread  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:42 PM  
Dave also helps gather edible flowers for bakery  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:43 PM  
Yessss  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:43 PM  
Also, foods high in testosterone are things like beef, shellfish, tuna, and egg yolks  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:43 PM  
Interesting  
I should probably let you know I'm imagining that the farm is kind of like the videos from this channel  
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoC47do520os_4DBMEFGg4A  
YouTube  
李子柒 Liziqi  
新浪微博：https://weibo.com/u/2970452952 Facebook公共主页：https://www.facebook.com/cnliziqi/ YouTube公共频道：https://www.youtube.com/c/cnliziqi

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:44 PM  
Also wild nettles are estrogen blockers  
Oooh  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:44 PM  
Interesting!  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:44 PM  
I'll have to watch this when I get home!  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:45 PM  
She's so cool  
She also has videos sorted by season  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:43 PM  
these make me feel so fucking peaceful  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:58 PM  
I've been imagining something more european, but this makes me imagine a more eastern setting, yeah  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:01 PM  
Ye  
Imperial Strilondes  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:02 PM  
which means they ALL get long hair hhohoh  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:02 PM  
Ye  
Oooh now I'm excited  
Lol  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:03 PM  
they're a family where the albino trait is dominant  
I kno  
imagine how much more ELABORATE Dave's old clothing ws  
even Dirk's  
not just a king..an emperor  
no wonder it was smothering  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:06 PM  
I wonder if there's a Chinese name with the same meaning as Dave  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:06 PM  
'gift of god'?  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:06 PM  
Ye  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:08 PM  
Dave reveling in the utter freedom of just a couple layers of clothing  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:08 PM  
Yesss  
And not having to wear makeup  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:09 PM  
no having to get up hours before the sunrise when royal guests are expected bc he has to be done up  
(admittedly, Rose isn't a fan of it either, but enjoys the display of power more then Dave did)  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:10 PM  
He still has to get up at dawn but he gets a warm meal and chores  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:10 PM  
https://www.chinese-tools.com/names/calligraphy/code_88_david.html  
"David" in Chinese, calligraphy, prononciation.  
Your name in English, Chinese character, Pinyin prononciation and Calligraphy.  
The tea is coarser, and never the same twice, but it tastes better from his own hands  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:12 PM  
Yeeeee  
!!!  
This Dave would probably know how to embroider, because I think that was something imperial women learned to do  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:13 PM  
oooh  
Calligraphy too  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:14 PM  
Ye  
He makes good luck charms for the local girls  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:16 PM  
one he learns how to do it, he makes nepeta some hair combs and decorations  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:17 PM  
She loves them, as rough and unfinished as some of them are  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:18 PM  
it's sort of odd trying to keep a foot in both worlds  
Dave still loves his family after all  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:19 PM  
But he feels free out in the countryside  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:20 PM  
It's hard trying to explain this  
Roxy listens best  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:21 PM  
She encourages him to be himself  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:23 PM  
Some political trouble gets stirred up when the youngest sister of the four Strilondes is suddenly 'totally unavailable'  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:24 PM  
Dirk, panicking: she's decided to become a nun  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:25 PM  
Rose: yes. Totally out of nowhere she discovered deep spirituality and lives in the mountains now. there are no survivors who try to reach her. 

no more questions.  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:25 PM  
Fjdjdk  
Guys  
Cmon  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:26 PM  
competent politicos they aint all the time  
While no one outside the immediate court knows, Dirk still has advisers in his ear about 'Dave assuming a role that would jepordize Dirk's surety to the throne'  
as if Dirk doesn't know perfectly well Dave has about as much interest in being Emperor as Dirk has in farming ginger  
(he also shuts them up by commenting that they have no problem using Dave's proper prnouns and status when they know it would put THEIR positions in danger)  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:31 PM  
What a good big brother  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:31 PM  
I am questioning how all this got started though  
Did Dave run away, did he contact some random farmer and ask if he could jsut..not be at home  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:34 PM  
An attempt was made on his life. The youngest daughter of the late emperor is quite beloved, and it was a political move to try to kill her. Dirk thought it best that she be hidden and payed a family generously to keep her safe.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:36 PM  
Dave probably resents it at first. While the ceremony and tedious life of the palace was difficult in ways she coudn't explain, this new life wasn't home  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:37 PM  
It's probably not even in the same province  
Everything is different  
She's incredibly homesick at first  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:38 PM  
Dave asks what she'll need. Dirk tells her 'nothing you could not carry in your arms.'  
Disciple is the first to pull him out of it  
rather literally  
as much as the money is helping their family, she'll not see someone lay about all damn day  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:40 PM  
Dumps a pile of loose wool on his bed and asks if he knows how to spin  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:41 PM  
He knows some weaving and embroidery, but it's all complicated frills and delicate finery  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:43 PM  
He tells her this, and she smiles and gently shows him how to do it. She's not harsh like she is with her daughters (and Karkat who does a lot more housework than farming) because she knows he's learning  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:44 PM  
It's difficult. The thread he makes is uneven and breaks a lot.  
And of course, nothing close to the tiny, fine strands he's used to working with at home  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:45 PM  
He's only worked with silk before  
His hands are too delicate for wool, he doesn't know how much pressure to apply  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:48 PM  
In a fit of frustration, he shoves it away and declares this isn't worth his time, it's futile

and Disciple slaps his hand. 

Not hard, not even really a slap to hurt, but merely bring attention back to the fore. Dave is stunned. Literally stunned to silence. No one had ever ever set hand on him like that. They'd have been killed for daring to.  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:48 PM  
Dhdjdjdjs  
She hands him back the bundle.

"Try again."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:53 PM  
He feels..shame. At acting like a child, at disappointing someone. He's not such a royal snob and ingrate he can't see that he owes at least this mush to the woman.  
The second attempt isn't much better really, but he sticks with it this time  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:56 PM  
Improvement is slow but eventually he can do it reliably. And Dis puts him to work  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 11:57 PM  
It's his first real chore  
The next to master is helping prepare meals  
this is when he and Karkat being interacting more  
CassaLast Wednesday at 11:59 PM  
Karkat literally takes one look at him and chops the head of a duck off without looking at it  
He has no time for a spoiled imperial brat  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 12:01 AM  
fhjdf nice   
Dissy can tell this is,,,going to be interesting. She tells Dave Karkat is one of the best cooks in the house, learned it from his grandmother on his father's side. He'll teach Dave what he needs to know. 

play nice boys~  
CassaLast Thursday at 12:02 AM  
Well I don't think Dave is, well, Dave yet  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 12:02 AM  
no, not tey  
yet*  
so karkat is..mostly impatient and pushes her aside so he can do things instead  
'just watch me'  
CassaLast Thursday at 12:03 AM  
She ends up sitting next to the oven watching him work  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 12:05 AM  
It is rather interesting watching it happen, she supposes. The food so far had been simple but good. Dawn didn't eat much anyway. Karkat is very fast though, and it's difficult to understand what he's doing or why  
Karkat tells her to get something from the garden and she hasn't the first clue what he's talking about  
..which starts him off muttering about being a vapid, brainless little thing with all the smarts and personality of cooked unseasoned cabbage..  
CassaLast Thursday at 12:07 AM  
She storms out of the kitchen and kicks a tree.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 12:08 AM  
"Tree never did anything to you," comments Sollux from across the yard, bringing water buckets and laundry. She glares at him.  
CassaLast Thursday at 12:10 AM  
"it may not have but your donkey of a Brother did." She sits with her back against the tree.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 12:12 AM  
He shrugs. "Yeah, Kat's not a people person. Ask him to spit in a jar and you could pickle years worth of stuff with just how salty he is," Sollux snorts. 

Dawn can't help but grimace and..smile a little.  
CassaLast Thursday at 12:13 AM  
She asks Sollux where the thing Karkat needed is  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 12:14 AM  
He points a single finger upwards, to the pear tree she's sitting under. 

Of course.  
CassaLast Thursday at 12:15 AM  
She gets stuck in the tree  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 12:15 AM  
(god damnd it, this is fun)  
CassaLast Thursday at 12:16 AM  
(isn't it?)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 12:18 AM  
I think her periods were always irregular (she's like, 17 or so) so she's not expecting it to show up much and getting blood out of linens is maddening  
she is of course, expected to wash her own  
(this might be one of the final straws for 'Dawn')  
CassaLast Thursday at 12:21 AM  
(ye. She's always hated them, they make her feel ill, like something is wrong with her)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 12:24 AM  
Dissy doesn't quite take her meaning. "Of course it feels wrong dear, everything inside wants to come out, and it wont feel much better until it IS out," she tells her in the quiet moments before dawn, making some tea for an upstet stomach. Dawn doesn't know how to explain the raw, unclean feeling shes always had about this isn't about the blood itself. It's something deeper then the skin.  
CassaLast Thursday at 12:28 AM  
It doesn't go away after, either. She starts binding her (already fairly modest) chest and ties her hair up more frequently  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 12:32 AM  
It evolves over months. Signless and Psi go to town the most frequently to sell produce and alcohol and make deals and the recent money from her family has brought the family who were already doing alright for themselves some attention. Ironically, though she's used to being a center of attention back home, she fears the gaze of strangers here. Like they knows something she doesn't.  
CassaLast Thursday at 12:48 AM  
It's psi who eventually confronts her  
(Sollux is canon trans now so. >:333)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 12:49 AM  
hohoHHOHO  
I like this  
I wass gonna say before you said the second thing, 'is Psi trans'  
but Sollux being chill bc He Knows is good  
Dawn has a bad night. She may have been exchanging letter or something with home up until this point but for the past couple of months there has been no word. She's worried. What if whoever attempted to kill her actually got one of her siblings. She hates feeling helpless and out of the loop and incompetent. 

It's the same night he cuts off his hair.  
Psi finds him crying over a basin in the small bathhouse (just a small room with a drain)  
CassaLast Thursday at 12:59 AM  
Sits with him and calms him down, quietly recalling another night much like this  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 1:02 AM  
Sollux had been sick with fear over what his parents would think. Karkat stood by him though. (Psi recalls he could barely get an encouraging word in edgewise before Karkat was stealing them from his own mouth, as well as more then a few creative threats, terrified as the two children were)  
CassaLast Thursday at 1:10 AM  
Psi holds him and runs a hand through his choppy hair  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 1:12 AM  
when Dave starts transitioning seriously is when Karkat becomes more interested bc Karkat didn't like GIRLS  
Sollux tells him the best foods to eat and how to carry yourself a bit different and warns him to be SURE to take the wrappings off at least twice a day  
CassaLast Thursday at 1:27 AM  
Dave is so delighted to sit like a man  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 1:28 AM  
He starts ribbing Karkat like Sollux does and it's fun  
CassaLast Thursday at 1:31 AM  
He cusses for the first time and just laughs  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 1:33 AM  
Karkat stares at this kid kinda laughing his ass off over being rauncy out loud in the privacy of home and..just kinda keeps looking. At his smile, his hair, his eyes. He promptly shoves the rest of his food in his mouth and mumbles about having forgotten to do a thing..at a place..  
CassaLast Thursday at 1:33 AM  
Nepeta giggles at him  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 1:34 AM  
Nepeta is the youngest  
and she Knows just like her mother Knows  
CassaLast Thursday at 1:36 AM  
Yes  
Dis might part-time as the village matchmaker  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 1:37 AM  
yeah, she can make them actually work ok  
would it be crazy to include the three older vantas-captor-leijons?  
Meulin is the eldest, followed by Mituna, Kankri, Sollux, Karkat and Nepeta  
CassaLast Thursday at 1:39 AM  
It would not be crazy I've been imagining them there  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 1:41 AM  
Meulin is already married, Mituna is courting (or rather, being courted-by) Latula and Kankri..is Trying  
CassaLast Thursday at 1:43 AM  
Kankri is this close to becoming a monk  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 1:45 AM  
Hjfjf  
If only to escape his family-OH GOD DID WE JUST ADOPT ANOTHER ONE???  
CassaLast Thursday at 1:49 AM  
Well, sort of  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 1:51 AM  
Dissy to him when they're alone: we just decided to mary your littlest brother off early and royalty would have to do  
CassaLast Thursday at 1:54 AM  
Fjjdjd  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 1:59 AM  
Also, I think Signless at one point WAS a monk  
Or at least was raised so  
CassaLast Thursday at 2:04 AM  
Raises in a temple  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 2:06 AM  
Thansks to the Dolorosa kinda noping out of there, he isn't anymore  
CassaLast Thursday at 2:07 AM  
Ye  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 2:08 AM  
I think I'm going to bed  
I just dropped the phone on my case  
Face*  
CassaLast Thursday at 2:14 AM  
Wow ye sleep  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 1:04 PM  
Ok picture this   
Paper lanters and Karkat and Dave writing each other's names on theirs  
CassaLast Thursday at 2:22 PM  
Yessss  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 3:24 PM  
This womans vidoes are insane  
It's very nice  
CassaLast Thursday at 3:24 PM  
I KNOW  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 3:25 PM  
SHE BUILT FURNITURE LIKE  
WH TA  
CassaLast Thursday at 3:28 PM  
Yeah she's totally amazing  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 3:29 PM  
I'm just imagining Dave during the rice harvest season literally having to work with everyone dawn to dusk  
CassaLast Thursday at 3:31 PM  
Exhausted, filthy and completely satisfied  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 3:32 PM  
It's the first night he and Karkat sleep next to each other  
Too tired to complain  
CassaLast Thursday at 3:55 PM  
Karkat is a furnace at night, the boy is warm  
CassaLast Thursday at 4:45 PM  
Ooof I just thought of something  
When the imperial guards come to collect him, the whole family is out planting  
They find, not the delicate flower of the imperial court, but a filthy farmhand holding a basket of rice plants  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 4:54 PM  
Dave is of course, not expecting them to come fetcg him without sending worked they were coming first. There is no one from his family accompanying the guards, so of course, they don't believe Dave for who he is at first  
They drag Sign and Psi and Dis out and demand to know where they sold the princess  
CassaLast Thursday at 4:55 PM  
They point at Dave and go "Your princess is right there"  
I'm not sure if they believe them but Dave slips away to wash the mud off of his face and then they finally agree that Dave is who he says  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:00 PM  
(oh good. I was thinking things would get more serious and they still don't believe them even when Dave shows them his olw dresses and the few things he took with him and he would, in a last ditch effort, have to. Disrobe. For the guards.)  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:00 PM  
(I mean we could do that  
(if you really wanted  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:01 PM  
The journey back is only a week or two, but it feels longer  
(in a slightly darker version of the au, but there are only so many red eyed albino people to be found in the world)  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:02 PM  
The idleness bothers him. He feels like he should be doing something  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:03 PM  
He writes a lot in his journal but also rereads a lot of the entries from the year and a half  
Or two years  
Coming home feels like the first days at the farm again  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:04 PM  
Totally out of his depth  
It irks him when the servants tut and murmur that "all that time in the mountains has ruined her"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:06 PM  
Roxy is the first to greet him and she complements him on 'the ingenious disguise. Clever, little sis.'  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:07 PM  
Dave quietly says "It wasn't a disguise"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:08 PM  
Roxy sort of stops and blinks. She gets this very serious look in her eye, like Dave is one of her experiments and its sort of awkward. "No?" She says at length, still staring at him.  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:10 PM  
He can't meet her eyes, and he twists his fingers together. The callouses on them catch. 

"no."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:12 PM  
He can't read her expression. It's the first time he feels like he can't, so much time spe t with people who don't see fit to hide much blocking him from recalling how he used to do it, get answers from his own blank family. 

Eventually Roxy just ushers them to the baths - Dave needs one, surely, she insists.  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:13 PM  
He sits in the water for a long time, feeling hollowed out  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:15 PM  
He's sure Roxys telling the others what he said. He doesn't get out for a long time, only doing so when he's sure he'll miss his welcome-home supper if he spends any more time here.  
The last thing he wants is to explain tardiness on top of it.  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:17 PM  
The meal is horrendously awkward. He barely speaks, and after two years of eating homemade, rustic meals, the richness of the food makes him feel ill  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:19 PM  
Not to mention..the clothes he came back in, the simple tunic and pants and jacket were taken and burned. He's only got his old warbrobe. 

Dirk and Rose explain all the things that have happened while he was away, and feeling sick, Dave eventually stands and just leaves  
Horribly rude and just not done. He can hear the whispers as he passes people  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:21 PM  
He finds himself in the private gardens, only his family and a select few servants are allowed in here. He pulls off all the finery they put him in, and climbs the tallest tree.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:23 PM  
Even there, it's just not the same. The farm was..wilder. The trees taller and he could hear all the night birds and frogs and crickets. The cicadas we're almost deafening in the summer. Here in the courtyard, only a few birds roost. The plants are very well kept and tended. The paths of gravel raked to perfect lines. Its. Sterile.  
Rose comes to find him.  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:25 PM  
She can't spot him at first, though she knows he's there. So she sits at the base of the tree and begins talking  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:26 PM  
"Roxy told us you were..different now. That the mountains changed you. I don't know if that's true or not, so I suppose I'll just have to ask you right off. Yes?"  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:27 PM  
Silence. A quiet creak of the branches in the evening breeze  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:28 PM  
Rose certainly wasnt expecting 'climbimg like a monkey' to be one way her sibling changed, and she looks up with wide eyes.  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:29 PM  
Dave is sitting in the branches, peering down at her. He still says nothing  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:32 PM  
Rose tries to gather herself. "I suppose asking if you're alright would be asking for you to give me an approriate answer in kind..so I suppose I'll have to ask what happened instead."  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:44 PM  
Another long silence  
Rose is about to leave when the branches rustle again, and Dave climbs down  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:47 PM  
Rose looks at him, wearing nothing but a tunic and trousers he probably got from one of the servants. His hair, his face. "Who are you?" She asks.  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:53 PM  
He hesitates. He's not sure. He's definitely not the princess anymore, but he doesn't feel like who he was in the mountains, either. Eventually, he quietly replies, "I'm Dave."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:55 PM  
Rose looks at him some more for a long time. He thinks he can feel the bloody stars in the heavens move faster then Rose takes to say something. 

Then she smilesore genuine then he's seen in a long time. "Hello, little brother. Shall we go inside before everyone sees you running about in your underwear?"  
CassaLast Thursday at 5:57 PM  
He blinks, then laughs, and says that yes, they should.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 5:59 PM  
The conversation flows more naturally. Rose and he go back to her quarters and have a pot of tea brought up. He tells her about the mountains.  
CassaLast Thursday at 6:01 PM  
She's amazed that her sibling, who was always quite weak and delicate, was able to do so much. When she comments on it, he laughs and says "I had nothing to do here. You wouldn't believe how good it feels to make things."  
CassaLast Thursday at 7:18 PM  
I need to Draw the strilondes in imperial dress  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 7:37 PM  
Yessss absolutely  
"You could make things here too, you know. It's not like anyone would have told you 'no'". But it wasn't just that. He found himself out there.  
CassaLast Thursday at 7:59 PM  
He talks about what he made, how hard it was to learn, but how impressed he was with himself when he actually did it. He Tells her about the changing of the seasons, the festivals, the good food and the music and the dancing and how. lively Everything is.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 8:30 PM  
She says it seems idylic. He pauses at that, deeply considering the tea in his cup. 

It..wasnt, though. People still got sick and died. Children were still killed in accidents, the work was indeed hard, and day after day. The bugs bit something awful, and well..baths were necessary and common, but perfumes were expensive and superflorious. 

It wasn't perfect, certainly not some get-away. But it was still good. It was still.. "Real."  
CassaLast Thursday at 10:23 PM  
Rose sips her tea and asks a very simple question.

"Were you happy there?"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 10:25 PM  
Rose has various stars and constellations painted on the ceiling of her rooms. Dave lays back in Rose's trule impressive amount of pillows and stares up at them, considering how the real ones look in comparison. 

"I think I was."  
CassaLast Thursday at 10:27 PM  
Rose hums quietly and sets down her cup. She lays down next to him.

"And. Are you happy here?"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 10:28 PM  
Dave opens his mouth, then closes it. This happens a few times as he tries to make the words right. 

"I. I know here. I am happy with you, and our siblings."  
CassaLast Thursday at 10:30 PM  
"That doesn't sound like a yes, Dave."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 10:32 PM  
"I don't know, alright?" He sits up and holds his head in his hand. "The family treated me well - I know here, but now I know there, too. I wasn't. Afraid of there."  
CassaLast Thursday at 10:39 PM  
"I didn't think you were, I know how brave you are. But now, are you afraid of here? You have been guarded since you returned  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 10:43 PM  
Dave goes to chew on his thumbnail - a bad habit he's always had no tutor or nurse could ever break him of - and shakes his head. "I think...what I took with me to the farm, what I was I sort of..left there." He snorts a little laugh, a thick, inelegant noise not even the men at court would dare to make. He picked it up from Sollux. "Drowned it, burned it, and buried it, probably." 

He goes a little more sober. "What I am now is not..welcome here. There is no place."  
CassaLast Thursday at 10:44 PM  
Rose hugs him.

"you will always have a place with us, little brother."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 10:46 PM  
He stays with Rose that night, like they were small children running to each other's beds and waking sprawled across each other in the morning. Dave doesn't think he can stand tonight in 'his' room.  
CassaLast Thursday at 10:50 PM  
He readjusts, slowly. But it's hard. Especially being called by the wrong name and being forced to wear women's clothing. At least Rose keeps him well stocked in nettles.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 10:51 PM  
He begs Dirk to allow him swordsman lessons, or archery at least. Something useful.  
(im not sure when he fully comes out to Dirk and Roxy)  
CassaLast Thursday at 10:52 PM  
(he doesn't I don't think  
Dirk sends him to an herbalist, to learn medicine. It's still useful  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 10:53 PM  
I don't think Dirk is being so traditional bc he's a dick..but I do think he's the Crown Prince and soon to be taking up the real deal soon and there is a lot of pressure to look and act right for the court  
CassaLast Thursday at 10:54 PM  
Yep  
Roxy is similar  
They're the eldest siblings. Dave and Rose (who are twins btw) don't have that kind of responsibility  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 10:57 PM  
Dirk and Roxy are already (and have been for years) fending off and politely skirting around marriages for the younger two (and themselves). However, time is ticking onwards. Their parents weren't much older then the older two when they had them. Dirk brings it up with Dave and he about loses his lunch at the thought.  
CassaLast Thursday at 10:58 PM  
Dave, literally hissing at him "I will not become the wife of a crotchety old Minister just because it is what's done, do you understand me?"  
Literally furious  
Dirk wonders if his demure little sister was always this feisty  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 11:02 PM  
oof   
Dirk and he get into arguments about it sometimes, and Dirk makes the mistake of saying "For fuck's sake, you'd barely have to see the man, just spend a night or two with him and come back here so ou can have the kid, then let him get on with whatever servant he wants and go on with your life!"  
It's the first time Dave has ever struck one of his siblings. Karkat taught him how to punch.  
CassaLast Thursday at 11:03 PM  
Dirk nurses a split lip for a week and Dave is confined to his quarters for "hysteria"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 11:05 PM  
Rose suggests he tell them. Dave says if it wouldn't go over well then, it most certainly won't go over well now.  
CassaLast Thursday at 11:06 PM  
"Honestly Rose, it's a crime for a woman to wear men's clothing! Imagine how they'd react if I claimed to be a man! I'd be executed!"  
He's pacing back and forth  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 11:08 PM  
"Now you really are acting hysterical. They wouldn't do that if the gods themselves asked them to." 

Dave spins on his heel. "They wouldn't. But the court would."  
CassaLast Thursday at 11:11 PM  
Rose is silent. Dave is raking his hands through his hair (they've made him grow it out again) ruining the careful styling.

"The court would call for my death, and you know what? Father would agree. He wouldn't care how adored I am, no daughter of his would make a mockery of herself."

He sits down, head in hands.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 11:16 PM  
She knows. They were young when their parents died, but being two years older then Dave, she remembers well enough the old man, and his wife who only the very generous could call 'parents'. But the lessons stuck well enough. Not to mention..there were already whispers. The Flower of the Imperial Court wilting, wasn't she? Soon to be in her prime and not a nod towards anyone. Hysteria now, it seemed. Beautiful, but flagging. And they say madness runs in blood.. 

She says none of this of course. Dave doesn't need to hear it. "What would you have me do?" She askes, hands splayed.  
CassaLast Thursday at 11:17 PM  
(emperors had multiple wives btw)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 11:18 PM  
(I figured, but I'm not sure how the direct executive power would ave been passed down)  
CassaLast Thursday at 11:18 PM  
A wife takes care of them, but the court runs the country  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 11:19 PM  
(I assumed to male leaders and politicians until Dirk was old enough)  
yea  
CassaLast Thursday at 11:21 PM  
Dave makes a miserable little noise and shakes his head.

"I don't know. All I do know is that I can't keep living this way. I don't want to be someone's bride for the rest of my life."  
(dammit this was supposed to be less angsty)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 11:21 PM  
rose plans to get married and promptly make her husbad's death look like an accident  
pfhh when do our aus NOT have at least a little angst when we get going  
CassaLast Thursday at 11:22 PM  
Lol this is true  
Dave is just planning to kill himself if it comes down to last resorts, he knows what herbs will make it look like illness  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 11:24 PM  
Rose may not know it goes this deep, but she quietly informs the servants around Dave's quarters that the princess needs as little disturbances as possible and not to keep replacing the incense burners or makeup pots, please.  
CassaLast Thursday at 11:26 PM  
One morning, Dirk shows up in his quarters and informs him he's to be married within the month.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 11:30 PM  
Dave, who had just woken up and wasn't even out of bed yet, loses his ability to breathe. 

"Y..you can't do that - Dirk you can't do that-!"

Dirk interrupts him, and a voice Dave barely remembers echos in his head. Tall, powerful, deep. Absolute power. "I am the ruler of this kingdom. Of this Empire. And you are my younger sibling. You are going to do what I ask of you. nd what I ask of you is to be married, be honorable, and fulfill your duty. After that, you can do whatever the hellyou please with yourself." 

He turns with a sweep of his robe to leave..and stops. His hand comes to rest against the wall. He doesn't look at Dave when he speaks again. So quiet he can barely hear him. 

"We all have our jobs. Our parts to play. We all have to..make sacrifices. This is yours..and mine. I hope you do not hate me forever."  
CassaLast Thursday at 11:34 PM  
Dave's left dumbstruck  
He doesn't know what to do  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 11:36 PM  
He goes to Roxy, knowing she at least has more sway then Rose, even if she does't know about him  
CassaLast Thursday at 11:36 PM  
Roxy has no power to stop the marriage. But she does try to comfort him  
(Dave thinks of the bottle of poison he's hidden under his bed when she suggests he just try to be happy with what's to come)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 11:42 PM  
The general isn't anyone of huge note - Dirk made sure to look over the candidates with more then a fine toothed comb - but the thought of even more entrapment kills Dave inside. At least here he has Rose and no one can say anything to him about how he dresses or speaks. He'd be little more then a caged bird, there, though. 

He thinks about the mountains, and the farm, and the songs Dis and Sign would sing at the fire at night.  
CassaLast Thursday at 11:48 PM  
He meets the man once, before the wedding. He's at least 15 years Dave's senior, and won't stop making comments about how "He's the only one who'll have her." It's clear all this man is interested in is the political clout Dave will bring him and the children he could give him  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Thursday at 11:52 PM  
Dave wonders how he should do it. Sometime before they ever fucking reach the bedroom, certainly. Their wedding food, maybe..he could sneak the bottle in under his robes, no one would notice a few drops in the drink. He'd be free before the moon rose.  
CassaLast Thursday at 11:54 PM  
Or maybe the night before, just a mouthful before he sleeps and he'll never have to face the altar.  
CassaLast Friday at 12:00 AM  
The time draws closer and closer. He spends hours alone in the garden, carefully writing out his goodbyes and apologies. He only wishes he could send one to his family in the mountains, so that they don't grieve for him. They deserve to know that his death was a choice, not a tragedy.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 12:02 AM  
I'm not sure the precise sequence of events, but I have twists  
CassaLast Friday at 12:02 AM  
Share  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 12:03 AM  
you know the bible story where jacob marries leah instead of rachel  
CassaLast Friday at 12:03 AM  
No  
I haven't read the Bible in a long time sorry -_-;  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 12:05 AM  
ok, so, what happens, is this man has two daughters - rachel the beautiful one and leah the wide one. dude jacob wants to marry this beautiful daughter of the man who he is working for. He works for seven years to do so, and at the alter when he lifts the veil, it's not the beautiful daughter, but the wise one instead, and jacob must work years more so he can marry the right one.  
jacob is tricked  
CassaLast Friday at 12:06 AM  
Oh yeah ok  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 12:06 AM  
Rose has not been blind to her brother's downspiral  
they want a beautiful, blonde royal bride do they? so be it.  
CassaLast Friday at 12:09 AM  
Oh yeyeye  
She wakes him the night of the wedding, her hair newly cut to the same length as his. She urges him to dress with clothes she brought with her, and takes his place in the bed.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 12:18 AM  
Dave is immediately up and suspicious, not connecting the dots (in true Dave fashion). "If this is some game I'm more then not in the mood-" 

Rose scoffs, arranging blankets. She doesn't intend to sleep a wink and plans to be up before anyone so her personal staff can see to her and keep her away from any eyes that matter until it's time. 

(god I wish I knew more about ancient china)  
CassaLast Friday at 12:20 AM  
(research time :))  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 12:21 AM  
oof, yea  
but not before I get this research paper done  
well, the proposal anyway  
CassaLast Friday at 12:24 AM  
Oh ye you do that  
I'll do some research ;)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 12:25 AM  
our power went out for like, a hot second so now im scuured Dx  
CassaLast Friday at 12:26 AM  
Oh no  
But ye Rose switches places and there's a carriage waiting for him outside  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 12:33 AM  
it will switch to a cart of trade goods once they're out of the city, and he can make his way back to his real home.  
CassaLast Friday at 12:35 AM  
Dave stares at her as she explains all this, then hugs her as tightly as he can and promises he'll never forget his gratitude to her. He kisses her cheek as he goes and she wishes him well.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 12:45 AM  
Dave has no idea if he'll ever see her again. Any of them, really. The sort of uproar this will cause..

He prays to anyone listening she or his family isn't hurt.  
CassaLast Friday at 12:48 AM  
The trip feels like it takes months, he's so nervous. What if they're gone? Or what if they don't want him back?  
CassaLast Friday at 12:58 AM  
The trader leaves him on the road outside the house, and for a very long time he can't bring himself to walk up.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:01 AM  
Part of him wonders where eveyone is. Well..no, that's not true. He knows Psi or Sign are probably out to town, and Nepeta and Karkat are inside he can see smoke from stove fires inside, hear clattering around. He half expects Sollux to sneak up on him. But he's alone, with yet another choice.  
CassaLast Friday at 1:04 AM  
There's no way he can go back to the palace and that glittering, suffocating life. He was prepared to die there, prepared to give up everything rather than live the life set out for him. He has nothing to lose.

And suddenly he's brave. He walks up to the front door and knocks.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:09 AM  
(I honestly don't know if Karkat would punch him or not at seeing him again after months and with one parting kiss)  
it is of course Karkat who answers the door with his usual fanfare of grouching  
CassaLast Friday at 1:14 AM  
He's shocked. Like, literally, his expression goes blank and then his mouth drops open. The last time he saw Dave he was being taken away without so much as a chance to say goodbye. Karkat had seen him crying quietly by the cistern. He'd thought he'd never see Dave again.  
He hugs him  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:18 AM  
It's a warm welcome. So much more then the elaborate one he got at the palace. Karkat smells like spices and his hands are sticky from peeling fruit and they're getting both their clothes dirty but it feels so nice to just hug someone  
CassaLast Friday at 1:21 AM  
Dave buries his face in Karkat's hair and breathes in the scent of him, spices and dust and wool, and his stomach settles for the first time in months. He's okay. He's okay, he's home, and no one is coming to take him away.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:22 AM  
"Why the fuck are you here?" The words try to mask the thickness in the voice that's so clearly indicative of tears.  
CassaLast Friday at 1:24 AM  
Dave laughs, he laughs and holds Karkat tighter.  
"I ran away! I couldn't stay there anymore, I had to come home."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:25 AM  
Karkat pulls away, suddenly looking an odd mixture of elated and afraid. "They - Dave, they'll come looking for you, they know where you are!"  
CassaLast Friday at 1:29 AM  
"No, Karkat, they don't." He grins.  
"My sister made sure of that."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:31 AM  
Karkat is silent for a moment

then he throws his hands up and practically yells, "OH SHIT WHO DID SHE MURDER??"  
CassaLast Friday at 1:33 AM  
Dave laughs and kisses him  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:36 AM  
It shuts Karkat up for a while until Nepeta comes looking for him  
CassaLast Friday at 1:36 AM  
Dave hugs her too  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:39 AM  
"Well, since you're here you might as well help with the food. Would you like a summary of everything you totally didn't miss in this hole in the ground, or should I let Dad talk your ear off tonight?"  
CassaLast Friday at 1:42 AM  
Dave, still laughing, "Yes, tell me everything  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:43 AM  
dusts hand off  
welp, that sounds like another for the books, ladies  
there's some epilogue stuff I'm sure  
CassaLast Friday at 1:43 AM  
Ye  
Dave n Kat get together  
For one  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:45 AM  
There is a huge kerfluffle at the royal wedding - the fringe group trying to kill the youngest royal are blamed for the theft of the bride and it's so sad, omg nuuu..  
CassaLast Friday at 1:46 AM  
When news reaches the mountain village, Karkat looks at Dave and goes "What did you DO"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:47 AM  
Dave bites very loudly into the apple. "...Nuffin."  
Rose, dabbing water from a glass under her eyes: wow, god, so tragic my little sister went this way. so much sadness. we may never recover.  
CassaLast Friday at 1:50 AM  
Dirk, next to her: Rose.... Explain  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:51 AM  
Roxy, from another room: god Dirk, can't you see she's just too upset for words, c'mon  
CassaLast Friday at 1:57 AM  
I have more ideas, always  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Friday at 1:58 AM  
I figured


	3. House of Derse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Strilonde family is host to something darker then dark, and Karkat, a visiting dignitary from Prospit, a neighboring kingdom, is sent to fetch something from the Citadel where the odd family presides. During his stay, things come to light that perhaps were best left in the shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is going to be in two parts - because if it wasn't, it would be a monster, no pun intended. The basis of this au is that the Strilondes are host to the horrorterrors. Their unknowable eyes, ears, working hands and voice on the earth to advance their equally unknowable and dark plans. They're little more then meat puppets, and have unimaginable powers. 
> 
> This jam was also partially rped as well, hence the different format. Enjoy :>

He’d seen artistic renderings of the building and its multitunina of wings before, the spires stretching like spearblades to piece the sky. He’d seen paintings of the way it lay like a spider, tucked into the odd scoop of the mountains surrounding it, the valley casting its shadows across the fortress even on the sunniest of middays. Hidden. Safe. He’d read journals detailing how the foundation was less a foundation, and more like the Citadel simply rose from the ground out of the living rock, a mountain in and of itself. 

Behind him lay the cloistered city, its towers and roofs tiny in the distance. Karkat paused to look down at it all from the great height he was at, then looked forward again to the heights he was still yet to conquer on his quest to even make it to the front gate of the blasted place. 

Urging on his horse with quiet murmur and heel to the side, Karkat tried not to feel as hemmed in as the city looked by the cliffs and crags that hung over him, the winding, if well-tended and paved path over twisting stone bridges that stretched like tree limbs across chasms even in broad daylight he could not see the bottoms to. His horse was good, however, and though her ears flicked back at every errant bit of breeze, she was destrier, and he’d trained her himself. 

“Good fucking luck trying to strom the bitch,” he muttered to himself as he came to yet another causeway, catwalk-like. And there, at the other side, a garden. Tall trees blocking out what little light dared show itself past the mountains peaks, thorny vines with nightblossoms sealed up tight in the day among them. 

And beyond that, a gate set into a wall, dark metal like twining, inter-locked roots the bars, obscuring the true entrance to the Citadel. 

Again, he urged his horse onwards, but the beast seemed skittish. And Karkat had to agree with it. The tall black spires of the citadel's tower seemed to puncture dark wounds in the sky, dressing up higher even than the peaks of the mountain. An imposing sight to be sure.

It wasn't just the intimidating architecture that had him on edge, it was as if the air of this place was, wrong. It felt at once both thick and thin, as if the oxygen have been replaced by something else, something heavy that settled into his lungs and made it difficult to breathe deeply. His heartbeat more quickly and every inch of his body warned of impending danger. And yet, he pressed forward. 

He rode right to the base of the dark gates, intending to knock or perhaps announce his arrival in some other way, but as his horse came close to the doors, they opened. 

The large heavy metal bars lifted without a sound, though any other gate would have made a tremendous sound at being lifted so suddenly and so quickly. It was as if they simply were not there. Beyond the gate was a pair of grand doors wrought iron and wood. The patterning was strange, twisting shapes that made eyes and mouths and hands in their contours. He approached these doors more slowly.

A shift in the light. An errant thought. Maybe his horse moved to spook at another passing breeze, what was with her today? Fuck, maybe his own weird sudden paranoia, but as Karkat reached for the knocker, a solid thing of the same dark wrot metal as the artisanal inlays, 

*He drew his blades, the white steel cutting through the dead air, the dead silence of the courtyard and archway. Karkat’s lips drew back as he felt like he’d been taken a fool, strangled from behind as something like the breaking point of a nightmare slithered past his eyes, darkening them into blackened, illogical rage-*

And he was alone. Again. The wooded garden had not changed a wink, the sunlight still twinkling past the leaves in rare dapples and his horse looking at him like he was a moron who really just felt a little anxious about a meeting with neighboring royalty for what amounted to a go-fer errand and decided to have a freak out at their front door. 

“Impressive. I dare say you could have cut a passing fly right in two,” a voce smoothed out across the daylight, and Karkay whirled around. “Are you always this impassioned when knocking or are we just special?”

The young man before him was a peculiar specimen indeed. He was tall, but narrow shouldered and slightly gaunt. His face was all sharp edges, hard cheekbones and a long straight nose. It gave the impression that he was carved from stone. An impression that was assisted by the fact that the man's skin and hair were almost pure white. It was as if the color was leeched out of him, save for his eyes, whose bright orange irises caught the light strangely.

Karkat knew who this man was. He'd seen paintings of him. This was Dirk, the king of Derse. Alone, and unguarded, in the middle of the courtyard.

Karkat hadn't expected him to be so young. The man's face was smooth, untouched by the lines of age. He cannot be older than twenty five.

Karkat realized he was just standing there like an absolute imbecile (he was lucky his mouth wasn’t hanging open for that aforementioned wayward fly to buzz in and out of) and he jerked out of his battle-ready stance at once. “My Lord,” he stuttered out, voice catching a little as he turned his sickles away ad lowered his head respectfully, cheeks blazing. “I apologize profusely for the disturbance in your own home. The ride here must have shook me-” 

Karkat winced at himself, gritting his teeth and remembering his proper manners. “No, again, ‘m sorry. There is *no* excuse for this egregious display.” 

If His Majesty was offended, then Karkat wasn’t sure he could tell - well. As if he could tell anything looking at his feet. He wasn’t sure he dared to look up just yet though. Just s he’d read and heard-tell of the Citadel and its looming presence over the mountain valley, so too had he lent an ear to a tale or two of the masters of the Silent House. 

And so Silence reigned. It was like a living thing, and all of a sudden that feeling was creeping back into the edges of Karkat’s awareness. Like a tide slowly mooring a ship, and burying it hopelessly in the silt all at once. He wondered if Lord Dirk could hear his heart beat. 

The young king made a sound of acknowledgement, and Karkat looked up.   
Dirk was... smiling, a strange almost unnatural smile, like he was amused but had forgotten how to show it.

"It's all right, many people who come to the Citadel for the first time experience what you appear to be experiencing. It's just the air. It's so thin up here, you might start to see things" 

his smile grew just a tiny bit wider, and he turned towards the center of the courtyard.  
"Please, come inside, we have much to discuss before you can rest".

Karkats face went even ruddier at the simple, sane explanation. 

*The high mountain air. I’ve read about it - oh, Kanaya would have my scalp if she was here,* he thought disparagingly to himself. How had he forgotten? And what had he done? Fuck, he was glad of the lack of guard here to witness and spread tales about the loony he presented himself as. 

At least the King seemed more faintly amused at him than anything. He..supposed that really was the best possible outcome. 

“Of course,” he Karkat agreed readily, slipping the sickles away and taking the reigns of his mount, intent on following wherever the man lead. “The tomes requested aren’t common knowledge and I’m sure you’ll want to be sure they’ll be well-looked after in their lending.” 

Karkat looked to the beast, still and quiet and being he usual well-trained self. Her ears were pricked forward, interested and aware of this new person, but Karkat noticed every few seconds she’d flick them back again, a hoof raised to paw. She seemed alright, and she more then needed a good rest after the climb.The thought of leaving her alone, though..

*Well-trained staff too,* Karkat thought to himself. No outposts on the long winding trail up. No guards at the final bridge. No one milling about in the courtyard and the King the one to answer the front fucking door, alone. He was just..supposed to leave his horse here? And trust some unseen stablehand would take her..who-knew where? 

Lord Dirk was still watching him, though, through those raptor eyes and expressionless face. Oh fuck, he’d hesitated too long. Did that com off as mistrust? *I’m sorry, Kanaya - you might not get the chance to gut me for my weird bullshit, the royals will do it first..* 

Karkat turns to the beast, and flips the leather strap over her head, securing it to the saddle and unfastening the pack with his things from the back. He stokes through her pale mane and over her honey-gold fur one more time. He tells the Lord, “After we’re through with whatever needs done today, I’d like to see where she’s being kept and meet the hands looking after her? If I may take such liberties. I do trust your care, but she was a gift-” 

His words stifle in his throat for a second, memories lingering just enough below the surface of his mind fresher ones cannot find there way there unwarranted. “-and, and my way home. I’d trust her more with my own life then just about anyone I know.” 

If something shifts in His Majesty's eyes, Karkat is too preoccupied with his animal to notice. Something interested in the mire of human mind beyond what failing finite eyes can see. He’s simply acknowledging a sensible request. 

"Of course. It's only reasonable. I'll have someone show you to the stables. Now, if You'll follow me."

He walks up the stairs, and the doors swing open silently. The hall beyond is filled with shadows.

Karkat blinked hard as the light changed. While the high rock faces of the canyon surrounding the back portion of the Citadel and the ages-old trees of the gardens blocked out what little sunlight made it past the mountains, it was still ambiently bright enough to see. Stepping past the doorway what..moved on its own, like the gate *some kind of internal mechanics? But there’s no one pulling anything..?* the low light of the palace insides swamped him, leaving him partially blind.

Dirk moved on, and Karkat rubbed the darkness away as his eyes adjusted. Sconces lined the walls, though he could see few of them were lit in the daylight hours, as little light as there was seeping though the small windows set high up into the walls facing out. The stone was - white. Smooth - fuck? Karkat’s eyebrows quirked as he took in the odd stone he couldn’t place. Marble, maybe, but no type he’d ever seen in construction, even in finery such as this. The dark streaks running in seams through the stark white of the stone were muted, as if hidden under it, like the dark waters under a frozen lake. Waiting..

Karkat shook his head. Dirk was already at the end of the long hallway, waiting at the archway. His pale skin as if carved from the same stone around him. Eyes like torches themselves. 

Karkat’s booted feet echoed in the ringing silence. Where outside there was the occasional hush of breeze across the bare rock, his good horse blowing and nickering under him, inside the walls of the Citadel even his own clothing made too much noise as he moved. 

Fucking royal weirdos. Even Prospit had its share of eccentrics who just didn’t seem to see the decency in wide windows and a few carpets. 

Then again, maybe all that fine drapery went to the King himself. Lord Dirk certainly seemed as ensconced in fabric as the wall were trapped in silence. The robe under a cloak over a tunic, and gloved fingertips peering out from the folds of linen in dark amethyst. Pinned at the shoulder, keeping the silky material out of the way, onyx, or jet. Shining like a blade in the firelight.   
The white hall led to another ornate set of doors, but these were not made of wood. Instead, they seemed to be constructed of crystal, or thick glass. Again, the door was decorated with delicate, twisting patterns. This time, they took the shape of a crown. 

The Lord walked right up to the door, and placed a hand against it. He spoke a single word, it was clear and loud but Karkat couldn't understand what had actually been said. The door swung open silently and Dirk stepped inside.

Call it a moment of pure panic, or maybe one of pure empty-headed stupidity, but the fact that Karkat only missed leaping forward to pull the King of Derse back by the high collar of his own cloak (a move that would have surely clothlined the noble oh dear gods could you imagine) was only because somehow the taller man had been able to move into the space ahead faster then the screaming thoughts of the Prospitian. 

Karkat himself couldn’t help but scramble back a few paces and nearly tripp over his own feet, letting loose a strangled cry at the vision before him. Or rather, lack thereof. 

Black. 

Black like the dark side of the moon, black like the inky veins that had wrapped themselves in pristine white stone behind him, infectious and creeping. 

Black like nothing at all. 

*And moving.* 

The minimal light of the torches outside the room didn’t reach here. The ceiling was nonexistent...and so was the floor. It was as if the room itself had no true endings or beginnings, only a spiraling shifting across all planes. Karkat couldn’t - dared not - breath for fear whatever was moving like silk over shadows would come spilling down upon him. 

Dirk strode forward with confidence, of course. He seemed to float into the darkness, his feet moving, his clothes making no sound whatsoever in the deafening silence. It was then that Karkat realized his robe was..sliding after him. On some unseen floor. The man came to stop at four pedestals the other hadn’t bothered to see, eyes as transfixed as they were upon the chasm of abyss. They were set at staggered heights, cloth draped over the stonework, the same kind as the hallway bore, the same dark veins in the light material. They seemed to glow out of the darkness, and in his racing head maybe Karkat was prepared to believe that. For now at least. At any rate, they cut the shadows with their very presence, stark as a bolt of lightning at midnight. Dirk hand rested on the lowest one, draped in blood red banner. 

He looked back at Karkat with a quizzical expression, as if the Prospitan was being foolish.

"Are you alright magistrate? It's only an illusion. Cut glass and water. It's perfectly safe." 

As he spoke he walked to the second highest throne, draped in a banner the orange color of flame. He ascended the three short steps and sat down.

Ok, scratch drawing live blade in the courtyard of a King and then making him play the waiting game while you goggled at his home - *this* was the closest to well-descerved execution Karkat had ever been with the question ‘are you literally insane?’ as second nature already about to take flight from the tip of his tongue. The fact he managed to catch it in as his teeth clicked uncomfortably shut on the deadly words was more then he deserved. 

Something shifted across Lord Dirk’s face, and it caught Karkat’s attention enough to see it. Water, he’d said? And indeed. Steeling himself, and totally not leaning back towards the ground he knew to be solid, Karkat allowed a single foot to slide forward onto what surely had to be nothing but air and black-

It settled on the cool, utterly transparent crystal of the throneroom floor.The light spattering oddly across Dirk’s face was light that when reflected in a pool, just thrown weird ways by the curvature of the massive room - the massive bauble of glass encompassing it all. The floor bisected it, equally invisible to the untrained eye not knowing what to look for. 

“Ah. I ask your boundless forgiveness once again, your Majesty,” Karkat manages to eek out, standing fully, if still not confidently on a floor he can’t really see. Dirk only nods, and then turns his attention to a small stack of papers on the throne’s arm. The - 

Karkat blinked. In the blind panic no longer smothering his rational head, he noted the thrones. Second highest. 

“Uh-”

“Karkat, this is my cousin. Rose Lalonde, this is Karkat Vantas, Magistrate of the Higher Order of her White Crowned court,” Dirk spoke before the thought was fully formed in Karkat’s head, and it seemed the headspinning wasn’t stopping today as something new saw fit to take him from behind. Rather, someone. 

He had not seen the woman, who perched delicately on her throne, because she blended perfectly with the purple Banner and the White stone. As he looked closer her features came into better view.

She was a petite woman, with the same white hair and skin as her cousin but where he was all angles she was all curves. She, also, looked quite Young, perhaps no older than twenty. Her lips were painted black, and they stretched slightly as she smiled at him. It was not a friendly smile. 

"Welcome to the Citadel Karkat, I trust your journey was pleasant?" Her voice was light, airy almost, but it sounded like she thought him to be a particularly dim-witted individual. Karkat felt his face grow hot under her gaze.

“It was..long enough, certainly.” Was that rude? It didn’t sound rude. It was truth, after all. “The Citadel is well-placed, your ancestors were smart people.” 

Karkat found that the smile didn’t leave her face so much as transfer from her mouth to her eyes, the black lips going thin but those pale eyes lighting with something like true amusement. Karkat wondered why that made him somehow feel worse. 

She soomed to humor him, and nodded along. Her movement, like her elder cousin, was smooth in the dark, deep royal blues and purples of her dress and own less bulky cloak sliding off the throne as she did. A piece of the deep night sky captured in cloth wih her the radient single star twinkling in it’s cradle. 

“Our family made many decisions in the past, both for good and ill - though, for whom it is boon and whom it is bane is all in who enjoys the outcome of these finalities, yes?” 

Karkat raised an eyebrow as she drew nearer. “I...yes, I suppose that’s true with anything a leader has to do,” he concedes. Where was this going? Anywhere at all? “I should hope the lending out of texts held here for years isn’t necessarily one or the other.”

Dirk puts down the paper he was reading and looks over, unconcerned.

"I would ask that you not interrogate our guest just yet Rose, he's doubtless tired from his journey and deserves to rest." His gaze falls on Karkat, and it shares the same bright amusement of his cousin.

"As for the lending of our documents, I'm afraid our library is quite extensive and you will have to search for them yourself. We are happy to keep you for as long as you need."

Karkat let a breath whistle from between his teeth - a bad habit various friends who cared had attempted and failed to break him of to no avail - and let his lips raise in a small smile of his own. “Yeah, I supposed that would be the case. I hope I’m not intruding at a poor time,” he hedged. 

"not at all, in fact your arrival proves to be somewhat of an opportune event. We have been meaning to reach out to our Southern neighbors. Perhaps this could be the beginning of an alliance of some sort."

The king gives Karkat his own tight smile. The air in the room feels more tense then it was a moment ago. Rose clears her throat quietly.

"Dirk, I believe it would be beneficial to us if I escorted the magistrate to the catacombs? There are certain things that we must inform him about if he is to be safe here."

Whatever little light the King’s praise and good tidings had fostered within the Prospitian was quite expertly doused in that cold little trickle like melting ice down the back of his neck. *Safe??*

Dirk looked towards his cousin, something passing in the heartbeat of a moment between them Karkat hadn’t the time to begin to decipher, or words if he had, and seemed to slump back in the throne. Well, lounge with less regality, Karkat thinks sardonically. 

He twiddles a cut pen between his gloved fingers. “If you think now is the best time, then I leave you to it. He’s asked to see his lodgings and his beast’s, however, after whatever else we decide to foise on him,” he replies. 

Karkat attempts not to to shuffle unseemly in place, like a schoolboy who’s been scolded once by his teacher and is waiting outside the room while they regail his wrongdoings to his parents for additional chiding. The last few words of the - princess? - Lady Rose settle into his head like creeper vine. Doing no harm, but certainly unwelcome. 

She inclined her head in the king's direction then turned back to Karkat. Her smile did nothing to calm his nerves. 

"If you'll follow me, please. It's quite easy to become lost here if one is not familiar with the more complicated paths."

She stepped off her own dias, and Karkat looked down into the inky black..waters, as the King had said. It..mut be like a soap bubble, he supposed, how the water flowed about the glass and clung to it, the lack of light truly disconcerting. As he stepped tentatively forward and regained his footing, he glanced at the man, his attention turned fully back to the paperwork. 

Karkat wondered. As a magistrate of Her Lightness’s court, he did his fair share of reading drolling letters usually made of more numbers and people’s titles then anything else, but he’d received precious little from the actual rulers of Derse. If they were thinking of sending missives out for negotiations for trade or a more open southern border, it must not have filtered down to him yet. 

Rose was waiting for him, and as he neared, slipped behind the throne pedestal. Karkat blinked, and took a few steps forward. A small doorway hidden there, and beyond it, more white, stark hallways lit by lamps, and ending in a stairway down. 

Rose stood a few feet down the hall, watching him with bright violet eyes. She beckoned him to follow, like he was a frightened animal.

"come, It's better if you stay close to me."

She waited until he stepped into the hall, then began to walk, quick paced, towards the stairs.

Maybe she was just raring to get to where they needed to go - the doorway loomed, and seemed to get bigger as they left the throne room and walked - or maybe he was still shaken up, but Karkat swore the Lady moved faster than she had ny right to as hemmed by the layers of heavy cloth as she was, the long sleeves hugging her arms closely and held shut with shining ties of silver against the black cloth and the gossmer of the outermost layer. 

The doorway to whatever lay beyond was mawlike, and Karkat, as hyperbolic as he tended to be, could think of no better descriptor. Hollow though the entrance was, the invisible barrier to something else with the first step down dared someone step foot inside. The same as the foundations to the Citadel, the stone didn’t look like any mason had ever laid hand or tool to it, no brick or mortar. The rock itself was carved of a stone not quite like the rest of the white halls. 

In the low light, Karkat’s mind likened it to the flesh of the nobles within it, smooth and bending in its vinelike arch. 

Lady Rose did not turn towards him when she spoke, but she didn’t have to. 

“Magistrate Vantas,” she began, and while he could hear his own breath in his ears, Karkat felt like hers was somehow far away, swallowed by the darkness of the doorway. “Do you..believe in something?” 

His brow furrowed. “..’Something’?” He asked. 

Rose's steps make no sound on the stone floor, a sharp contrast to the hard clicks of Karkat's own feet. She stops at the threshold of the doorway and removes something from a pocket in her skirt.

"Yes. Something, larger than yourself? Gods, monsters, that kind of thing?"

She is holding a small, ornately carved silver ball. she shakes it and it begins to glow with a pale blue light.

Karkat's eyes widen at the light, eyes having adjusted to the flickering shadows of the Quiet House, and it seemed more bright then perhaps it really was. 

"Phosphorescent?" He said, not really a question. Prospit had been cultivating the glowing material in various forms for decades now, and he held out his hand to receive the item. As for the...cryptic as fuck question..

He looks up to the Lady, and works his jaw for a moment, sorting words and turns of phrases. Derse's common tongue isn't so different a language as Prospit, but the accent in the Citadel dweller's voices was different then any he'd heard in the city, fluid in a way others hadn't been. 

"I...believe that if there is something greater then I somewhere out there - in the sky or earth or water or whatever - then it would know humans are fallible and a mind as influenced by what we see and feel can only understand so much."

She hummed, thoughtful as she dropped the ball into his outstretched palm. The silver was cold as ice when he touched it. She stepped over the threshold and into the shadows, seemingly unfazed by the dark. 

"An apt assumption sir, but it would perhaps be best if you started believing in the things that lurk in the shadows." She looked back and her eyes glittered strangely in the weak blue light. "after all, You have already met them."

Before he can even *begin* to decphipher what the actual fuck this woman ison about, he’s scrambling to keep up with her form melding into the shadows, the light not seeming to catch on her properly. 

The orb is the perfect size for his fist, and he holds it aloft as they descend. As soon as the threshold is broached Karkat already feels like he ought to have found a way to deny this excursion. Explain that he takes the family at their word, that he won’t go snooping where he’s not wanted, that he can just get to the library, collect what he needs and *go* but no. He finds the deeper the steps delve, the less he feels like anything could come out of his throat that wasn’t forcefully ripped.

Something is building. Something like panic, but cold and lethargic. His steps are pulsing up his own legs, and the sudden weight of the mountain he is under seems to collapse around him, pulling in and sending inaudible vibrations into his body. His eyes are fixed on Lady Rose, hand aching from the force of his grip on the tiny little light like the brightest star in the sky down here, where the shadows writhe-

“Do not be alarmed. Your reactions are perfectly sane. As with the air causing mild hallucinations, so too does the deep tend to induce a number of hysterics in the mind,” Rose states calmly, though he can hardly hear her 

There’s something else here. 

He could hear... Something, in the shadows. Quiet. Whispering. A tune that didn't quite carry in the air. He could barely make it out, but as they walked deeper into the pitch black halls, it got louder. Clearer. 

It was harder to follow Rose with every step. Every single instinct in his body was screaming at him to turn tail and run, to flee this dark, dead place where the light of the sun could never possibly reach. But even as he thought this, Something willed him forward. He made it far enough into the darkness that he could not see the light from the hall, and his nerve broke. He could go no further. He stood, frozen, as Rose walked on ahead of him. She didn't turn back.

"If you must, stay there. I will come back to collect you." 

And then she was gone, swallowed by the shadows. Alone in the dark, Karkat looked around. The dim light he'd been given illuminated perhaps ten feet around him, and all he could see was the stone of a wall and the pitch black of an open arch. The something in the air was getting louder.

He could make it out now. It was, singing. There was someone singing, far away by the sound of it. The voice was clear and high, but he couldn't make out the words. They echoed over top of each other so that all that could be made out was the somber melody. But even that was difficult to hear. Something else was making a loud, discordant sound that marred the song. He tried to listen more closely, to seperate the sounds in his mind. After a moment, they resolved into something understandable. Karkat's stomach twisted with sudden fear and anxiety.

Screams.

He would have fled - fuck the errand, fuck the royal whoever-the-hell these people thought they were and the dark mountain **k**palace they resided in. Karkat could not stay here. *I’m going to die here,* the thought twisted into his head, simple as fact. The mountain roots would be his tomb, and the screaming trickling into his ears **a**in pulses, in melody, would be his**r** lullaby to eternity. 

‘Hysteria’ she’d called it, Lady Rose, Lady of the Thorns so the few scholarly articles he’d dug up about her had proclaimed. Something hummed louder in a wave, washing over him s it drowned out all his own thought. Karkat thinks he’s screaming too. His mouth is wide open, and he’s on his knees,**k** curled like his own little black hole around the dimming light of the orb, fuck, *fuck, it can’t die, he can’t LET IT DIE, HE’LL DIE IF IT DOES, THE BLACK WILL HAVE HIM-*

The ringing, finality of the utter, total stillness that consumes **a**him is like a physical pain wracking his body after the song’s layers and entrapment has invaded his senses in such totality. **t,**

**h**

*E*

*L*  
**L**

**o**

The screaming stopped, eventually. So did the singing. Karkat curled around the tiny light, shaking and shivering. It was hard for him to breathe. 

"Are you alright?" 

His head snapped up, and he saw someone he didn't recognize. A young man, the same pale white as the other royals, with bright eyes, the colour of fresh blood. His hair curled gently around his face, slightly obscuring a black band that rested on his head, like a crown. He was staring down at Karkat, a look of concern on his face. He's wiping his hands on a cloth, which he put away quickly. He extended a hand to help Karkat up.

"You look half out of your mind, did my cousin leave you here? She knows better than that, I'll talk to her, don't worry"

Karkat wasn’t sure what his face was doing in that moment, and words wer still a little lost to him. He blinked with bleary eyes that felt wet *shit, was he crying?* and leaned back to balance himself of his elbow so he could extend his other arm out to the stranger. 

Well, not stranger. 

“Lord of the Red Sun,” he rasps out, and cant hold back the wince as his voice sounds absolutely *shredded.* He..must have been screaming after all. His hand clenches at the thought of his voice, echoing and layering and becoming lost in the cacophony he cant even call properly to memory from a second ago-

“Ey. Earth to the foreigner.” Fingers snap at his face and he opens his eyes, unaware he’d even closed them as tightly as he gripped the young Lord’s hand - oh shit! 

He loosened his hold, but forgot he wasn’t properly up. And flopped backwards onto the floor. Ow. 

The prince’s lips parted, radiant and white, and laughed. It was.

Cold. 

Not the laugh itself, pared with the way his red eyes screwed up and he quirked his head to the side in boyish, good-willed mischief, but. The sound left Karkat feeling like he’d seen the last of the sun, and the little blue orb actually stuttered in his grip. 

He winced, and the young man smiled again. It was the most genuine smile he'd seen from this strange family so far. He offered his hand again.

"Just Dave, if you don't mind. Wow that really did a number on you, didn't it." 

He pulled Karkat to his feet. He was shorter than the Prospitan expected. He was maybe half a head shorter than he was. He was also, distractingly pretty. The perfect blend of his other family members. He continued to stare at Karkat, one of his pale eyebrows raised.

"Well I think we broke him..."

On impulse, Karkat glanced behind the man, expecting to see Lady Rose right there possibly holding a hand to her mouth to hide a grin like Lord Dave’s at his predicament. 

There was no one there. Just the rest of the cavernous, empty stairwell descending into nothing. They were alone.

Uh. 

“I’m fine,” he grits out on principle, almost without his say-so. “What the Everlight goodness’s *fuck* was..” he tries, but can’t really find the words. Or..the thought? To finish the sentence. What...what was..he knew what he was tryign to ask, he was sure of it, concepts like yarn in a ball, but knitting together the fibers of coherence seemed. Difficult. At the moment. 

"Let's get you out of here." 

Dave, still holding Karkat's hand, walked back up the stairs. Slowly, so that he wouldn't trip or stumble. The little light in Karkat's hand flickered, like a candle going out. He clenched it tighter, praying that it would last all the way to the surface. Dave glanced back at him.

"Light makes it worse, you know. The hysteria. It's easier if you go in the dark. And besides, nothing is gonna try anything. I'm here. You're safe when you're with us."

At the mention of forgoing the little light, Karkt felt a protest growing on his tongue. So he was rightfully freaked out by the deep dark fucking *abyss* he’d been verbally dragged down into on his way to just pick up some books! And at the final mention of being safe, of all things light and laughable, he out right jerked his hand out of the noble’s grip. (He could hear Kanaya scolding him for such poor manners in front of the gracious hosts now..)

“That’s - that’s very kind of you, my Lord. Uh. Lord Dave. I’m just not used to...” *being dragged what could be miles underground for all it feels like the world’s swallowed me whole and there’s not a soul around but you apparently to know* “..the architecture. It’s very unique and I guess I should have used my rotting pan for once in my life and read up more about it before leaving.” 

Dave tilts his head, considering. Then he looks back at you and smiles.

"if you insist."

He turns and starts walking up the stairs again.

Karkat is left with the fading bauble, and the feeling like he’s being patronized..but not in the same way as Rose had done. 

Nothing for it, of course. He does *not* want to be stuck down here with naught but a blown-out lamp and his own skin. 

On a whim, Karkat glances back to the deep. The Catacombs. 

If he listens closely, very closely, is still enough that his clothing doesn’t move and he holds his breath to the last of his ability, he imagines, and ‘imagine’ being the operative word here of course, of course

he can hear an echo of someone’s voice. 

The little blue light pulses weakly, burning a bit brighter for only one moment, and then dims to practically nothing once more, and the Prospitian magistrate is quick to fly his sorry arse up the steps until he can make out the white hair of the young prince like the sun itself in the lamplight of the coradoor behind the thrones.


	4. House of Derse, continued

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the second half of the House of Derse rp

The young man was waiting at the top of the stairs. He watched Karkat emerge from the door with a detached sort of amusement.

"Rose said you wanted to visit our stables? To see your horse? I can take you there now, you look like you could do with some sunlight."

Karkat felt a bit winded from the anxiety that still cling to him like briars in wool, and from basically running full tilt up all those steps. He took a moment to breaht a bit deeper, possibly the most he’s done since stepping foot onto the Citadel grounds, and then looks to the prince. 

“Yes, *please.* I mean no disrespect, my Lord, but she is important to me, and..” he grit his teeth and looked helplessly towards the wall, “..I’d *very much like some fucking fresh air right now*” 

Dave let out a sudden burst of laughter. It was just as cold as it had been down in the catacombs. He covered his mouth with his fist. At some point he had put on gloves, the deep, almost black purple was a stark contrast against his skin.

"Sorry. It's just that no one ever curses around us. You're the first. It was a little shocking."

Karkat takes a moment to process the words, and suddenly his stomach drops for a completely different reason. He stumbles back a little, and holds out his hands in askance.

“Shit-er! Damn, I mean- oh god.. I do not mean to sully this house with the lowest of languages. I work with common folk much of the time, and their lexicon tends to leak into my own.” 

He laughed again and turned away.

"Really, don't worry about it. It's fuckin' great Actually, nothing like an older guy who swears like a sailor to get the blood pumping, by the way how old are you exactly? Judging by your title I would've thought you were some shriveled of Bastard but I was sure wrong come on stables are this way."

He walked away. Karkat wasn't sure he'd taken a breath.

Like a sudden sour note in a complicated sonata, Karkat was left standing clutching at the bauble which gave one final dying sputter and saw fit to blow itself out in his palm. 

*Did he just..?* 

It seemed like Karat was still not done being dragged by the unseen hand of some god or another yanking at his proverbial chain, the chain he himself linked with his own inanity, and hoofed it to *catch up yet again with the royal, who was still..talking.* Was it even to Karkat anymore? 

Truly, even as he tried to find a place to slip into the...what the highly generous would call a conversation, even after Dave blatantly asked a question, but didn’t pause for answer. 

The throne room was..empty when they came back to it. Dirk was nowhere, as was the stack of papers, and Rose had apparently not come back from the Catacombs yet. Rather then return to the courtyard with its sunlight and air, the prince veered right in the middle of the spherical room. Karkat didn’t see the doors until Dave himself pushed them open. 

More. Hallways. 

This time though, it was different. The stone was less..odd. Pale still, but wood panelling and metal peered through here and there, the same dark, twisting shapes in wrot iron as the grand gate. It was wider too, and the windows were more numerous, wider, letting in at least more light then the Prospitian had thought he’d have to forgo. 

It did a good job lighting up the reliefs and murals decorating the tall picture walls opposite of the windows. And *everything* they depicted. 

The images were, dark, for lack of a better term. Massive imposing murals of men and women with chalk white skin, and blackened eyes. Many of them were shown below great, seething black things, all beak and shadow and- 

Tentacles.

Karkat pulled his eyes away from the pictures, and they settled on Dave again. He was still talking.

"-it like there? I've always heard Prospit was, like, hella flat. Is it true you don't have mountains over there how do you defend yourselves? Oh-!" 

He wheels around to face you, cape fanning behind him.

"is it true the sun never sets there?"

Karkat finds himself at the mercy of the man before him, carmine eyes wide and in the natural light of the sun showing off the ever so slight golden undertones. Of course, in the light it was about the only thing aside from his clothing that *had* any color. The golden rays, what little they reached into the wide hallway, did little to add anything to the man’s palor, still stony white. Did any of these people get outside? ...Ever? 

Even if he thought he could help it, Karkat didn’t bother stopping the growl that built in his throat. He was however Very proud of himself for tapering it off into something softer like a belabored sigh at the end. (Hopefully not..to belabored..) 

*”Alright! Sun and stars, but you should be a damn orator,” Karkat exhales hard, a hand on his hip and the other winding into his hair. He’d slipped the gloworb into his pocket until..he supposed, a better time then now to hand it back to its owners. 

He fixes his best Serious Stare onto the other, still smiling. Still watching. “Firstly, I’m 28. For..no particular reason, let’s just lay that on the table where we both can see it. Secondly, my parents were married, so, legally not a bastard. In uh, that sense at least. Prospit has a navy, I mean. The utmost respect, but as a leader of a kingdom, shouldn’t you know that? Thirdly, if we’re even keeping track anymore, our military is one of the best on the whole Skaian Peninsula. You can tell that to King Dirk, if he plans on making nice-nice. Not that we’ve ever had problems with Derse, you guys are so insular it’s like you’d need a literal god to rip you out of your mountains, and yes, we can defend ourselves just *fine* with no mountains.”

Karkat leaned back, and huffed. “And my favorite color is red. Since you. Asked.” *Fifteen minutes and a thousand questions ago…*

"And," he speaks up, one last time, lips drawn back over his teeth, "of course the sun sets. It's not like it's controlled by anything other then itself. 'The sun never sets on the Prospitian empire' is a catchy turn of phrase by people who decided to stick their thumbs up their a-er. Rears and spin while the rest of us actually did the job of running the bloody place."

a series of strange expression crossed the young lords face, it looked as if he was experiencing several different emotions at once. After several minutes of this, he settled on smiling again. His smile was unnerving. Too wide, too forced.

"Of course it is! Forgive me, we don't get out very much. I guess one shouldn't believe everything that they hear. We're almost at the stables if you'll follow me"

And with that he was off again, walking down the corridor with a sense of purpose. But he was silent now. It was almost more unsettling than the constant chatter.

While his legs moved to keep up with at least following, the man, Karkat’s stomach stay firmly somewhere around his knees. 

*Oh, well done you colossal pimple on the backside of some unholy ogre. Can you do anything right? Offending nobles is just your bread and butter these days, isn’t it? Can learn six languages and read three more but you can’t learn to just keep your fat trap fucking buttoned!* 

At least he didn’t feel the need to dig himself deeper. Karkat followed the back of Dave’s waving cloak as they rounded corners and passed monolithes of more sculpture showing...whatever the hell Derse’s cultural lore was? The more he looked, the less Karkat could really place the images with something familiar in his head. So he stopped trying after a tapestry wallhanging depicting in loving weave and stitching a hundred people looking to be torn inside out by some roiling black cloud, phantom horses with gaping mouths and clutching, writhing riders in the miasma. 

Eventually, there was a break in the high walls penning them inside, an archway where the gate was already open and leading out into a long, fenced field nestled into the mountain basins. A building to the one side, small, but familiar in shape and function-

*And people??* Karkat could hardly believe his eyes. 

There was a young woman in the field, brushing down his horse. Her wild black hair was tied in a knot and her hands were calloused. She looked up and a bright smile lit up her face .

"Hello my lord! What brings you here?"

Dave walked right over, not pausing.

"Hey Aradia I'm just bringing the new guy to see where we're keeping his horse wow she's a big girl I think Dirk Would like to see her"

He rubbed the horses nose, and she knickered at him.

Karkat had to decide whether or not he should let himself roll his eyes even behind his back at the spew of rapid-fire words that were once more tumbling out of the prince’s mouth (though, he was a little relieved the lord didn’t seem intent on dolling out demerit to Karkat..). He settled for merely shaking his head and moving forward to his own animal. 

“Doe he own many horses?” Karkat asked, holding out his hand for the soft brush the woman - Aradia, he thinks he heard Lord Dave mention through all that prattling. “This doesn’t seem the terrain for it, unless you breed them special or something.” 

He glanced at the stables as he spoke, eyeing the closed stall doors, and when that drewno conclusions, the small paddocks. There were no animals as such in sight. Perhaps..they boarded them at a more equine-friendly altitude? 

Aradia looked at him, a quizzical expression on her face. 

"no, the royal family doesn't keep horses. They-"

Dave cut her off, walking back to Karkat.

"we don't leave the citadel often enough to warrant horses. Dirk is just really into them though, like, really into them he has been since he was a kid but they're all scared of him. Probably because he moves too fast or something. She's a really pretty horse by the way where did you get her?"

His mouth was open to perhaps ask after the statement Aradia had left unfinished before Dave’s continued deluge, before the noble’s words register. Teeth click as he closes it quick enough. 

For once, the silence isn’t unwelcome. Dave actually seemed intent on getting an answer to *one* of at least fifteen he’d managed to ask in the way there, and Aradia didn’t seem to mind slipping off to the other side of his horse to continue her grooming when the air filled with the lack of conversation. 

Karkat finally took his eyes off the young lord, who was just..staring at him. Unblinking. Waiting. Wanting. Expectant. And.He instead turned to watch the shoosh of brush through the animal’s white coat, listen to her breath like bellows at a forge, shift her footing and the crunch of grass in her huge head, the occasional purr deep in her belly. 

The silence in the Catacombs was deathlike. Worse then. This was natural. Well. A bit more natural then the inside of that building. 

“Her name is Dulcis, and she was a gift. From - someone important.” 

"Oh?"

The young lord seemed to deflate, ever so slightly. It was only for a second but Karkat caught it. Then he was smiling again.

"And who is that someone important?"

He doesn’t know what comes over him suddenly, but as soon as those words are issued from that little, smiling face, all teeth showing again, eyes bright even through the late-day shadows and his bangs, Karkat realizes how much he wants to *punch the little brat right in the face.* 

It takes him quite by surprise the depth of feeling, like a painful wave from his throat down to his chest, settling like stinging nettles. As mucha as he bitches and moans and threatens incompitent people with various acts of bodily harm and humiliation when they fuck up so royally bards should make songs about their failure to last the ages, it never lasts long, and was mostly empty words of frustration. And for the worst days, days his anger is more than anger but that’s the coat the emotion is choosing to don that day, Kanaya is always there with a pot of tea and some nerve herbs for the afternoon. Just until he’s ready to leave the house without wanting to flay anyone who breathes in his direction. 

This he finds, unexpectedly, is too close to the second by far. 

Dare he not answer? 

Aradia gives him the brush, and moves off to the side to start compiling her other pieces of grooming items. He takes it to Dulcis’s coat. 

“My father,” he answered with a tight voice. 

Dave's face went blank. He blinked, his lips parting in an expression of shock.

"You... Knew your parents?"

His voice sounded small, genuinely suprised. His eyes were wide. He seemed even younger in that moment.(edited)

Like the darkness driven from a room with even the smallest candle, the absurdity of the simple question seemed to snuff out any haze of old emotion the previous ones had shoved to the surface, though just as unceremoniously. 

Karkat blinked at the man, and stopped himself just short of squinting. “..Yes? My mother was always involved in my life, and my sister. My-”

He took a deep breath, and turned to Dulcis, running the brush over her already-shining coat. “My father died when I was younger, but I had him as a child at least.” 

He cocked his head a little towards the noble, quizzical. “Why do you ask?” 

Dave looked away, twisting the end of a shirt sleeve between his fingers.

"It's just, well. I never knew mine. My mother died a few days after I was born, and I can't remember my father at all." He looks up. 

"You're lucky."

Karkat’s hand stills the brushing, and he looks to the noble, fiddling with his sleeve. Something shifts in his chest, and..perhaps a few things fall into place. He tries to catch Dave’s eye, but he appears to be quite taken with tuggig at invisible strings on his own perfectly tailored clothing. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, voice pitched low. “I was unaware.” 

A lingering question loiters at the back of his head, about the huge, empty temple and the beings who lord over it, the King himself, but Karkat can’t find the words at the moment. He watches Dave in the quiet, and then steps to the side, the movement finally seeming to catch the attention of the royal. 

“Here, come here.” He holds out the soft brush to the man. “She’s a glutton for it,” he lovingly admonishes the animal who turns to look at him through large, black eyes.


	5. Darling Demon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A slight subversion of what the lore of the incubus. Dave is a young incubus taken from his parents and family and being raised by Bro for rather bleak purposes. Karkat is a gargoyle traveling from roost to roost with his father trying to get along in this human-dominated world...when a chance encounter brings the two demons together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is some underage and child molestation mentioned in this one folks - read the tags, and enjoy some more of our worldbuilding. :>

CassaLast Wednesday at 7:28 PM  
True  
I just wanna revel in baby Dave angst  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:28 PM  
same  
I wasn't feeling the plot for this tbh  
mostly angst and hurt/comfort and incubi worlddbuilding  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:32 PM  
Ye  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:32 PM  
annnnd now I'm just making up magic  
oh well  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:33 PM  
Thats how it be sometime  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:34 PM  
oh good, I killed it  
sfkjgsdg  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:40 PM  
So, Incubus Dave living with bro?  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:40 PM  
ye  
Bro isn't great for him  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:40 PM  
Obviously  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:41 PM  
like I said, makes him beg for the affection he needs  
the original au was a lot darker then i felt comfortable sharing with them  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:41 PM  
Crying is a common occurrence  
I will listen  
I'm not afraid of the dark  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:42 PM  
it involves demons being seen as subhuman rather then actual sapient people  
hence the 'poaching' term  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:42 PM  
Oh  
Hell yeah  
So it's like, Bro sees it as keeping a pet monkey?  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:42 PM  
a bit  
baby incubi don't look human  
dave looks a lot like...well. a baby bird  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:43 PM  
Yikes ™️  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:43 PM  
bigger, and with clawed hands like a raptor, downy fluffy and little wings  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:44 PM  
Awwww  
Humanoid face I assume  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:44 PM  
yea  
lil dave is meant to be in a 'nest' really  
in the 'wild', incubi lure in humans to act like live feed, taking from them until they exhaust a soul  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:46 PM  
He needs his mama :-:  
Ouch  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:46 PM  
so Bro knows that dave looks cute, but COULD be dangerous to him if he lets him snuggle too close at night  
they get more human looking as they get older  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:48 PM  
Dave crying for something, anything to keep him going. A pat on the head, a hand on his back, Anything  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:48 PM  
Bro is sparing  
don't want that shit clinging too close  
but he also has to keep it alive  
again, this is the dark stuff  
he's raising it to give it back to someone bc incubi can take a lot of shit  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:50 PM  
Is he training Dave to take a beating of take a dick?  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:50 PM  
both  
as necessary  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:51 PM  
:grimacing:  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:52 PM  
Maybe a pet for some lofty mobster or businessman who can get away with it  
Dirk is ring fodder  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:52 PM  
Fighting ring?  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:53 PM  
yea  
both something to warm up the crowd and fluff the champions up  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:54 PM  
Poor boy  
Dave eventually learning to accept sex because hey, it's food  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:55 PM  
Bro starts him out fairly young  
As soon as his down is out and he can actually take that kind of feeding  
the sex doesn;t get to dave so much as the command training  
pavloved to hell and back  
CassaLast Wednesday at 7:58 PM  
Bro: Come here.

Dave: does it immediately.

He learns that clothes and furniture are for people, not him  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 7:58 PM  
Incubi have some shapeshifting and chameleon abilities, and Bro gets that under control too  
the iron collar is heavy  
CassaLast Wednesday at 8:02 PM  
Ow  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 8:03 PM  
Bro shows him off somtimes  
'oh..it talks' someone said when Dave was little and didn't know he wasn't supposed to say 'hi'  
CassaLast Wednesday at 8:06 PM  
His "room" is a little empty box with a bed in it. And a loop set into the wall so bro can chain him in the corner  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 8:07 PM  
When Dave was little he used to try connecting to other demons he could feel around him through his mental and emotional pulses  
He learned Bro couldn't feel those  
CassaLast Wednesday at 8:08 PM  
Several times he sent out a little cry of "help! Please!"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 8:09 PM  
He got an answer once  
Karkat  
gargoyls are seen as a nuisance in cities, like pigeons  
hard to get rid of though, they're territorial  
CassaLast Wednesday at 8:20 PM  
Karkat guards their building  
He manages to sneak into Dave's... Pen, once  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 8:20 PM  
how old are they?  
CassaLast Wednesday at 8:21 PM  
13?  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 8:21 PM  
k  
Dave is getting worse  
he wants more but what little affection Bro was giving him is getting sparser  
Karkat is a totally new experience  
CassaLast Wednesday at 8:29 PM  
He touches Dave without reservation  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 8:30 PM  
I stick with the thought that gargoyls scrub a place of negative energies  
and Dave is filthy with it  
karkat's skin is rough and his voice is (almost literally, ha) gravelly, but to Dave it's the best thing  
CassaLast Wednesday at 8:34 PM  
Because his touch is gentle, his words kind. He wants to help Dave, not hurt him  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 8:35 PM  
Dave thinks he has to repay him  
CassaLast Wednesday at 8:35 PM  
Oh nooo  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 8:36 PM  
when karkat rejects it, he feels like he did something wrong  
and he'll be punished now  
CassaLast Wednesday at 8:38 PM  
He cowers, exposing his neck and basically laying on the ground, whimpering  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 8:44 PM  
:<   
Karkat doesn't know what to make of this  
humans are easy to deal with  
CassaLast Wednesday at 8:50 PM  
He asks Signless and the gargoyle just shakes his head.

"There's nothing to be done. The human may be removed, but the pain he inflicted will remain. I doubt that the incubus will ever recover"  
Karkat sneaks in just to hold hom  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 8:54 PM  
ooh what if incubi have problems forming attachments  
as in, if one person is feeding them for long enough it's difficult to take other sources of energy  
karkat brings dave things from outside  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:00 PM  
Ooooh yeyeye both are good  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:01 PM  
he waits up for karkt  
he brings dave bottlecaps and spare change and feathers  
sometimes clothing but thats big and bro would notic  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:06 PM  
He wears them when Karkat comes over, and hides them under his mattress when he's awauy  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:06 PM  
they occasionally draw together  
I don't think karkat can get into the room all the way  
bars on the window  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:08 PM  
They hold hands and Karkat touches his hair, his shoulders, his face. He manages to kiss him once, on the forehead  
Then one day Karkat comes and Dave is just, gone. The room is empty, the mattress missing and the hook in the wall plastered over  
He can smell pain, and fear, and he sees scratches in the floor and walls.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:11 PM  
He gets into the apartment through the roof access - something his father told him not to do, but he's away right now and karkat is suddenly scared  
it's not empty..someone is still living here  
he doesn't want to touch the smuppets, they feel soaked in dreadful feelings  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:12 PM  
What if  
What if Dave had been trained to accept pain as sustenance.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:12 PM  
BIG OOF  
it's possible though  
the perfect bed bitch  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:14 PM  
I am imagining Karkat hears the sound of crying and someone being beaten  
Bro found his small collection of things  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:15 PM  
karkat watches from the crawlspace as Dave is beaten with a belt and fists and Bro's boot into a bloody thing  
he's healing though, a bit at a time  
energy being exchanged  
and Bro is furious  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:33 PM  
Dave is moaning, in pain but also in a sick twisted sense of pleasure. He's crying too  
Karkat leaves clawmarks in the metal of the vent  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:34 PM  
Bro pauses for a moment, thinking he heard something  
Dave sends out frantic pulses  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:35 PM  
Karkat, to his shame, stays quiet  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:35 PM  
(I want the to have tails and dave's is fluffy with small fur-like feathers. he's very sleek)  
Karkat thinks Dave knows he's there  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:36 PM  
(oh. I love that but now I'm afraid)  
Bro snaps out of it and hauls Dave up by his hair, calling him a slut and a sneaky little bitch and telling Dave he'll regret hiding things from him  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:38 PM  
His pickup is in three days. He's not going to be Bro's problem anymore, soon  
So why bother holding anything back when a little warmer like him should learn to love it  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:39 PM  
I have.. a bad image  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:39 PM  
I'd say Bro docks Dave's tail for his own sadistic pleasure but that might ruin the goods  
oooh what  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:43 PM  
ow, but yeah no, no modification without the owners express permission

Bro puts down the belt, and is suddenly being just sweet enough to catch on Dave's hunger. He says he doesn't like doing this, Dave knows that, but he has no choice when he disobeys. Dave laps it up, seemingly not aware it's not genuine. Then Bro pops the button on his jeans and asks Dave for a proper apology.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:48 PM  
(ye, good point)   
Karkat feels definitely sick now. There are energies he and his father seek out, and this isn't one of them. It buzzes in his head like an electrified fence, making his skin harden and sharpen to angles. He grips the walls of the crawlspace hard, and wonders if he cares if Bro hears him. Dave is nodding, saying 'he's sorry, it won't happen again, it was the crows, the crows leave things there..' while scrabling at Bro's hips, gentle, wanting. Desperate for the trickle of that new kind of ''''love'''' he's growing to need. 

He shoudl..go. he needs to go. Karkat can't see this. For Dave's dignity. For his own lack of nightmares. But he doesn't move.  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:50 PM  
He watches as Bro makes Dave suck him off. He pulls out at the last second and comes on Dave's face, then has the fucking nerve to make Dave thank him again.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:52 PM  
(should karkat risk jumping in now, or IS he going to enlist the help of sign?)  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:53 PM  
I don't think he can move. He's frozen  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:53 PM  
I think Bro has a lot of antidemon shit around the apartment  
Bro doesn't take Dave back to the room though. He gets the iron collar and chains him down to the futon  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:56 PM  
Dave is so deep into his mind games he actually thinks this is a good thing  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 9:57 PM  
as long as Bro keeps touching him, looking at him.  
No matter the fucking circle he's trapped in, now  
(Bro has a carpet with sigils woven into it that forms a binding circle)  
CassaLast Wednesday at 9:59 PM  
Ouch  
He couldn't leave if he wanted to  
Karkat continues to watch as Dave sits at this man's knee, so desperate for any attention he's thrown, and feels sick.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:04 PM  
Dave pleads a litany of things - he'll never do it again, please don't hurt him more, he's sorry, he's so sorry..' 

"None of that now. Silent." He goes totally silent and still. It's terrifying. Bro holds the boy's head in his hands as he asks in a soft voice, "..Who got you the shirt, baby? Wasn't no crow. Who was sneaking in to dip into this honeypot?" He presses his shoe to Dave's groin, hard.  
CassaLast Wednesday at 10:05 PM  
Dave whines but doesn't immediately answer  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:06 PM  
Karkat knows there is no way Dave can win  
Tell the truth and then Karkat will have to flee, making Dave a liar when Bro tries to confirm it. Tell lies some more when Bro already knows they're not the truth  
CassaLast Wednesday at 10:07 PM  
He wants to help but this apartment is a Deathtrap for demons  
Dave eventually spills. It was another demon, someone like him. He sends out a pulse that says "Run!" He knows Karkat is there.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:10 PM  
Karkat has a hard time moving though. He's let his skin harden in defensiveness for too long and it will take a moment t get mobile again, no matter how much he's panicking  
CassaLast Wednesday at 10:10 PM  
He's too slow  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:10 PM  
Bro pulls his sword  
CassaLast Wednesday at 10:12 PM  
Karkat can't get out of the vents in time. Bro hauls him down  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:13 PM  
There's not a whole lot of mundane things that will hurt a gargoyl who's halfway to being stone out of fear, but certain modern chemicals (and enough brute force) will do the trick. Bro has both.  
Dave is screaming  
CassaLast Wednesday at 10:15 PM  
Bro burns Karkat and kicks the shit out of him. It doesn't matter that this is obviously a juvenile. Dave nearly snaps his neck trying to break free  
Karkat, in self defense, turns totally to stone, and Bro makes a move to smash him into pieces  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:18 PM  
He is literally saved   
by a phone call. 

Not just any phone call, but one from a very specific burner phone Bro keeps for a very specific..client.  
CassaLast Wednesday at 10:18 PM  
Oh no  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:20 PM  
Bro has the sledge hammer in his hands. Dave is working his neck and fingers bloody. The sound is like lighting. 

Bro glares down a the defense gargoyl and doesn't turn his back on it when he goes to anwer  
CassaLast Wednesday at 10:20 PM  
Dave doesn't stop howling as Bro picks up  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:23 PM  
He doesn't say anything first, but an annoyed Brooklyn accent speaks. The look of pure hellfire Bro shoots at Dave is enough to stutter him to a stop momentarily. 

"Don't play that shit with me Strider, you're the only one who can answer this phone. I hate mouthbreathers."  
CassaLast Wednesday at 10:24 PM  
(le?)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:24 PM  
(Spades)  
(or one of the Felt, acctually)  
CassaLast Wednesday at 10:24 PM  
(spaaaades, right)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:25 PM  
(LE doesn't make his own phonecalls akdjfj)  
CassaLast Wednesday at 10:29 PM  
Bro growls back:

"I'm a little Fucking busy at the moment, what do you want."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Last Wednesday at 10:33 PM  
Dave is trying to get to Karkat, who internally is struggling to get himself unstoned so he can make for a window. But the transition stage would leave him vulnerable..not that he already isn't...

"You're always busy - whole fuckin world's busy. Look. You agreed to last week in the park. You cancel, say sometin' came up. You agree to yesterday, same place. You weren't there. Someone at the top's gettin real damn antsy for what he paid for, and it's making life a living hell for the rest of us."  
CassaLast Wednesday at 10:34 PM  
(BRO IS KEEPING DAVE?)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 2:43 AM  
He cries at weird things  
Especially food  
Karkat used to bring him treats when he was locked inside  
CassaYesterday at 2:44 AM  
Fruit, especially apples, set him off  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 2:48 AM  
Music is  
Touchy withhim  
Bro liked music and liked to play it  
CassaYesterday at 2:49 AM  
Certain genres set him off  
Especially EDM and rap  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 2:49 AM  
Dirk isn't excemt from this either  
Since I'm assuming he and Dave's parents were killed to get them  
CassaYesterday at 2:51 AM  
Ye  
Oof  
Sad thought  
Concubi sing to their young, in fact their primary language might be tonal in nature  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 2:52 AM  
Omgg  
Dirk is a little older then Dave  
He remembers a little bit  
Abandoned mall, big soft nest, quiet, parent hushing the human hosting Daves egg and cuddling Dirk  
CassaYesterday at 2:54 AM  
I'm fear  
It's soft but it feels like it's going to go so wrong  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 2:54 AM  
It issss  
Bc the egghost was bait  
CassaYesterday at 2:56 AM  
Noooo  
Also  
Dirk's vocal chords were removed when he was very young, and he hates that the monsters who took him stole his voice.  
He remembers being able to sing once. But it's distant and fuzzy  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 2:58 AM  
He was never taught to write either so it's so DAMN frustrating trying to explain all this with impulses  
They may need dadbert and his Child Rearing skills  
CassaYesterday at 2:59 AM  
Ye  
Or a Miracle of some kind to restore their voices but, eh.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 3:00 AM  
I mean, would could just lose the plot point of having their voices removed  
CassaYesterday at 3:00 AM  
No I like it  
Tragic  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 3:00 AM  
Verrry  
Also I SHOULD GO TO BED JEZUS  
CassaYesterday at 3:01 AM  
Oh fuck yea you should  
One thought for the road  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 3:01 AM  
Oh no  
CassaYesterday at 3:02 AM  
Don't worry it's a worldbuilding detail  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 3:02 AM  
Sjdbdh  
CassaYesterday at 3:03 AM  
Concubi can feed eachother, but only when one is an infant. Much like mammals they wean off of the affection provided by their parents, but this usually happens near the start of the sex drive developing.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 3:04 AM  
Bro yesss  
Omg I want to develope this world so much  
CassaYesterday at 3:04 AM  
Dave never got this initial affection  
Boy is malnourished  
Same  
Go to bed  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 3:05 AM  
Fhdd tommorow i will respond as I can. Goodnight!  
CassaYesterday at 3:05 AM  
Night!  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:14 AM  
Morning c:  
Archiving this one  
I think I'm going to draw the incubi Dave and Dirk later  
CassaYesterday at 11:22 AM  
Oooo  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:23 AM  
On a scale of 1-rp, this one ranks p high  
CassaYesterday at 11:25 AM  
Ye  
I had another sad idea last night  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:25 AM  
Keep cranking them out  
CassaYesterday at 11:26 AM  
Baby Dirk had horrible nightmares About his parents being murdered  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:27 AM  
Drove him to seek out bro as his main source of affection  
OH WIAT TOU DAID DIRK  
Sorry  
CassaYesterday at 11:27 AM  
Lol it's gucci  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:27 AM  
Yeah, I don't think Dirk was with bro, but he was with another 'trainer' and it still wasn't great  
Hes had bad expiriences with hellhounds bc the trainer for him also kept them for the ring  
CassaYesterday at 11:28 AM  
He would wake up in the middle of the night trying to scream  
The image of his parents bodies, twisted and bloodstained on the ground, will never leave him  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:30 AM  
He acted out when he was brought to the ring in hopes he's piss off the wrong demon or human and get killed  
At least he may ght get to see his parents then  
CassaYesterday at 11:30 AM  
Ye  
I have this super vivid image of how it goes down too  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:31 AM  
:grimacing:  
CassaYesterday at 11:35 AM  
Basically, they're nesting, the incubus parents is trying to take care of the egg host, and the succubus is snuggling with Dirk, feeding him. And then the host stands up and pulls out a gun. Everything freezes. The host laughs, thanks the couple for being so gullible, then shoots the incubus in the head. 

The succubus runs.  
(she has Dirk with her of course)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:37 AM  
(I'll get back when class is over! :>)  
CassaYesterday at 11:38 AM  
They manage to hide for a while, but eventually someone finds them. The succubus is extremely protective of Dirk, to the point of getting herself hurt. But eventually, the person manages to rip Dirk out of her arms and sends her to meet her mate.  
Dirk screams until they sedate him for transportation  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 12:57 PM  
I think concubi are one of the donic races who interact casually with humans the most  
Both bc theyre their energy source and concubi have very good glamour  
They met the bait on a website that may be publishing sympathetic articles about demonkind  
(the sort that's sort of patronizing, treating demons like endangered animals rathet then a sapient species)  
Also now I'm sad you write good ansgt  
CassaYesterday at 1:08 PM  
Thank u  
In the past, before demons were considered lower life forms, Concubi often formed trios with humans. A succubus, an Incubus and a human host for the eggs  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 1:10 PM  
Concubi were pretty good delegates between humans and demonkind  
The start of the hunting of demons began when organizations stares deciding which demons were 'good' and which were 'bad'  
as well as a healthy dose of puritanicalism  
CassaYesterday at 1:16 PM  
They started to hide  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 1:26 PM  
Some demons kept their territory inaccessible to humans so other demons sought protection there  
Inferni are one with their proclivity towards calderas and hotsprings and geothermal activity  
Hm   
Are hellhounds a human creation  
Bc that seems like the kind of things humans would do  
CassaYesterday at 1:41 PM  
It does and I think they dod  
Did  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 2:04 PM  
Communication breaks down  
Most humans see demons as evil and animals  
CassaYesterday at 2:06 PM  
Yep  
They're not  
Obviously  
The concubi probably get the worst of it, since they feed off humans  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 2:08 PM  
Vampyers too  
CassaYesterday at 2:13 PM  
Ye  
It's. A bad situation  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 2:28 PM  
Gargoyle maybe got out ok ?  
CassaYesterday at 2:29 PM  
They're seen in the same way pigeons are, common nuisance  
CassaYesterday at 2:48 PM  
Whelp  
The time has come  
The Strilonde server is shutting down  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 3:46 PM  
REALLY  
The old one?  
.damn  
Well  
It's probably for the best tbh  
CassaYesterday at 3:50 PM  
Yeah  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 3:50 PM  
There is a strange dichotomy with imagining Dave and Dirk these tall, elegant beings with white feather-fur and whiping tails and eyes glowing with magic..just like. Wearing basket ball shorts and band tee-shirts John's dad buys them from bargain bins  
Hey, I can go back and re-read all the jams now  
From the strilondes server  
CassaYesterday at 3:51 PM  
True  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 5:24 PM

Bc I'm stupid  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 5:56 PM  
Plotting to upload a fic like   
'youll love it..YOULL ALL LOVE IT'  
CassaYesterday at 7:50 PM  
Is. Is that baby Dave  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 7:50 PM  
..maybe  
CassaYesterday at 7:50 PM  
I wanna squish  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 7:50 PM  
He s just. FL uf  
CassaYesterday at 7:51 PM  
They're cute by design  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 7:51 PM  
They radiate 'love me'  
Also I'm imagining the incubus parent as alpha Dave  
CassaYesterday at 8:03 PM  
Oh ... Oh no..  
That is very sad  
Alpha Rose as Succubus?  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:28 PM  
Yea  
ADave interacted with humans the most  
He figured he was good at getting  
Vetting*  
And there was no malice in Club's voice or aura  
CassaYesterday at 8:38 PM  
It's just part of the job you see  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:38 PM  
He does find the process fascinating  
CassaYesterday at 8:41 PM  
Clubs?  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:42 PM  
Yes  
He was the one going through the demon website looking for hooks to snag  
Spades wass mentioning getting in some 'cubi and he figured he'd help  
CassaYesterday at 8:44 PM  
Finds a "concubi couple seeking host" and informs slick  
Babies are easy to train  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:52 PM  
Slick has done weapons sales and black market stuff with Bro  
He asks him know what he thinks of the idea  
CassaYesterday at 9:08 PM  
Bros into it  
Slick might not have specified he'd be training a child...  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:13 PM  
He is presented with Dirk first  
Bro outright refuses when he's told how concubi have to have affection to grow  
The juvenilles won't get anything from sexual acts  
CassaYesterday at 9:14 PM  
Then he's all but forced to take Dave, a literal infant  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:17 PM  
It's..almost funny imagining Bro holding this little ball of white fluff in his arms and threatened with pain of death if he fails or fucks up  
CassaYesterday at 9:30 PM  
Ye yikes  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:30 PM  
dave managing to live to 13 is incredible enough  
CassaYesterday at 9:31 PM  
Well to be fair  
Bro needed to keep the fluffball alive  
(also I replied)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:32 PM  
(I see :> )  
Bro might have spent a while trolling through any and all places to get info on concubi  
most of it was bullshit  
CassaYesterday at 9:35 PM  
absolutely  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:36 PM  
'suck your soul out through your dick' kind of bullshit  
there are a few sources that seem autobiographical, but it's realllly dubious if they're ACTUALLY concubi writing these online journals or if it's just a very good creative writer  
CassaYesterday at 9:37 PM  
almost nothing about babies  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:38 PM  
They're ..precious  
Secret almost  
CassaYesterday at 9:38 PM  
children are guarded visciously  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:40 PM  
It's amazing how much of a bamboozler Clubs is that he got a gun within a mile of the nest  
CassaYesterday at 9:41 PM  
shows how good he is at hiding his intent  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:41 PM  
Ye  
CassaYesterday at 9:42 PM  
Imagine how confused and frightened ADave and his mate were  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:43 PM  
They thought everything was fine  
Totally fine  
It was just another night  
They were so careful..  
CassaYesterday at 9:45 PM  
ADave sees it first, the black glint under the nests bedding. He backs away, feathers puffed up and trilling. His impulse is fear and confusion, and it alerts his mate just in time.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:46 PM  
What if he's not shot in the head  
What if he's just fast enough and lunges forward so that Clubs gets him in the middle  
CassaYesterday at 9:47 PM  
hhhhhhhhhhh


	6. To Whom it May Concern

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kankri is a mutant on Beforus. He is culled by Equius Zahhak. This is his story; to himself, to you, to whomever it may concern.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The tags have been updated yall! Please pay attention to them for this jam, seriously. Some dark, sad things are discussed in this one. Thank you all!
> 
> Edit: We missed this first time posting - have ten pages of Kankri angst content INCLUDING THE REASON THIS CHAPTER/STORY IS CALLED 'TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN'. 
> 
> thenk yuu.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:38 AM  
YE  
I saw a hc once of Kankri bring "culled" By Beforus Equius and  
I love it im so soft  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:38 AM  
ohh?  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:38 AM  
ye  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:38 AM  
yess  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:39 AM  
I cannot find it but it was real cute  
lil kankri with his big blue dad  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:39 AM  
hold him in One arm  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:39 AM  
hold him in one hand  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:39 AM  
jghs  
Kankri is bit lonely in the huge, empty mansion in the middle of nowhere  
there are a few paid cooks and maids about, but no one else  
the old troll likes his privacy  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:40 AM  
Equius is not around a lot  
he cares but hes busy  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:41 AM  
Kankri does't wander much at first  
he's been told to 'be good' so many times  
so he's in his room a lo  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:42 AM  
he reads  
he reads and tries not to go insane  
when he was little the old troll was a lot more present  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:43 AM  
He misses it  
Being held like he meant something to him  
being talked to  
well, more talked at then to, like a sounding board, but same difference  
He wonders if hes not important anymore  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:45 AM  
one morning, he walks all the way to Equius' bedroom. He can't sleep  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:47 AM  
He's amazed the highblood is still in there. Half of Kankri wondered sardonically if he'd jut dreamed the other troll up. He's not sleeping though, still tapping away at the desk. Still muttering on about calculations and engines and optimal helm output. The bed is empty though, with lots of space for a small body to curl into.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:49 AM  
he walks into the room and curls up on the mattress. The blankets are thicker and warmer and he feels a lot safer  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:51 AM  
The typing stops for a moment, a long moment, and Kankri thinks he's going to be taken out. Lifted and say outside with a tired grumble about work and disruptions, but. He's not. The typing picks up again, and he snuggles further in, letting the sound wash over. He's so secretly happy, if just for now.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:52 AM  
he wakes up the next night to a maid waking him up  
she asks why he's in the master's bedroom  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:54 AM  
He doesn't have a real answer for them, just a shrug. They shoo him out all the same, like a child underfoot and tut as they have to remake the bed. Equius is nowhere in the home.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:54 AM  
dejected, he goes back to his room  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:55 AM  
Talking to any of his friends seems..exhausting.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:55 AM  
that morning, he gets a visit  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:55 AM  
(did you have someone in mind?)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:56 AM  
(its equius I need him to care)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:58 AM  
The doors in the hive are very large, to accommodate the frame of someone particularly tall such as a well-aged highblood, but Kankri still finds it funny how his own smaller things feel like doll toys next to it.

Equius tells him to come along, he rumbles softly. He's sure the little cullee hasn't eaten anything, nor seen to his daily ablutions judging by the half-plastered down state of his hair.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:00 AM  
He scoops kankri up and takes him to the baths  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:03 AM  
He used to do this a lot when Kankri was a wiggler. He'd tell him to stop squirming and well of course soap stings in your eye, that's a lesson to keep still. He'd wrap the little troll in a towel and his hair would fluff up worse then Mituna's.

He's quiet now, and so is Kankri. He doesn't undress the cullee for him, simply moving to start the water himself, choose the scents and soaps.

Kankri wondered if something changed when. He did. After a certain number of sweeps.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:05 AM  
He eventually gets in the bath and His Guardian starts washing his hair. He's quiet for a long time before he finally manages a "I missed you" so quiet its barely audible over the taps  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:07 AM  
(is their relationship going to be strictly platonic?)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:07 AM  
(its a parent-child relationship so ye)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:10 AM  
Again, the blue pauses. It's heavy, just like the massive paw in his hair.

"I realize," he sighs. The hand begins to move again, too and fro, cool against the sweltering water. "Hence me taking this evening off."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:12 AM  
Kankri has to blink back tears. He hasn't been abandoned again, like he was in the caverns. His Guardian is here for him. He curls up against the troll in the bath and the blue snorts at him quietly before drying him off  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:16 AM  
The fingers toy with his hair as it's dried gently with a blower, silky. The outfit chosen for him is midnight navy and flowing around his calves, trim blazingly bright as his own blood. Custom. It's a warm season, and Equius and Kankri sit with the huge windows to the forest open while Kankri eats.

"I see you've amassed quite the tomes. Are you reading anything in particular now?"  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:18 AM  
"I like the books about people" His ears go red, which is a telltale sign he's not telling the whole truth. How does he tell Equius he's been reading about lowblood rights?  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:23 AM  
Equius nods, sipping his lone drink of various steeped herbs. His horn aches in the early dusk, ensuring a migraine if he's not careful. "You can learn much from the past, little sunset." He does quirk a brow at the ears. Kankri doesn't usually lie, and is never good at it when he tires. He hopes this isn't going to devolve into something worthy of a demerit. "Is there anyone you're so taken with?"  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:24 AM  
"Um." He twists his hands in his clothes. "Low bloods, mostly. Im reading about the culling process."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:28 AM  
"I see. A noble process set forth by Her Incandescence," he nods. He wonders where this is going.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:32 AM  
"I've just been wondering if. Well, if low bloods ever culled each other?" He blushes again, this time from embarrassment. It's a stupid question  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:33 AM  
(I'm to bed, unfortunaly. Just like kankri. Blan.ket.)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:33 AM  
(I love him, g'night)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:33 AM  
Nighty  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 10:39 AM

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 11:12 AM  
Equius paused his next sip, blinking down at the mutant at the very idea. "I wouldn't think so, unless in the most dire of situations."

He sets aside the cup and turns more to face his ward, give his full attention. "It is not the duty of those lower on the hemospectrum to burden themselves with the issues of society at large. Such a mental strain put upon them - up you", he adds, cupping Kankri's face, "-is unconscionable. Wrong. We the powerful must protect those who cannot. Do you understand?"  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:52 PM  
Kankri looks down and away. "Right. Of course."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:57 PM  
Equius sighs. Perhaps his time spent working so hard has affected his cullee too much. He plans to remove himself from some projects - the people working on them are more then capable enough with only his minimal input. "It is not for you to trouble yourself with. Your duty is here, with me. you bring me so much, you realize, with your presence alone?" He smiles down at the little mutant.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:58 PM  
"I do. I just- forget sometimes." His shoulders are slumped and he looks away. He doesn't believe the old troll but he can't say no, can he.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:04 PM  
"Then I have been a poor guardian by letting you forget, and for that I am sorry. Let us try again, shall we?"

Equius keeps him by his side through the evening, and into the long hours as the Red Lovers rise into the sky to begin their nightly dance in lime and fushia. He keeps Kankri on his lap through a screen meeting, and with him going to pick up a package at the small dropbox at the edge of his property. He could have had one of the servants do it, but he wanted to get outside a bit.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:08 PM  
Kankri isn't allowed out of the house alone, so he rarely leaves. The breeze is nice.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:11 PM  
"Ah," the old blue murmurs as he inspects the box. There is not just one - a large pink one marked with the Imperial Trident and its burst of light as official mail - but two. The second is..lumpy. And wrapped in simple paper, tapes together. There's a note stuck to it with dark green, curly writing.

"It seems someone else is thinking of you," Equius hands off the parcel to his ward. "Best wait until we're back, though."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:14 PM  
Equius let's him hold it on the way back.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:15 PM  
It's the sweater  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:19 PM  
He seems genuinely excited that he's recieved a gift though. He puts it on immediately. It looks like Porrim remembered his wriggling day. No one else did.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:22 PM  
oh s ad  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:24 PM  
:333  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:24 PM  
It's not the best. The lines are off, and it's clear Porrim had more aspiration then skill when making it,and it's sleeves hang over his hands and the main body reaches to his mid-thigh..

but it's warm. Blazingly bright, just like him. He feels something stuck to the inside, that Equius didn't see. A..note?  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:30 PM  
He waits until the blue retires for the day before he pulls out and reads it  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:36 PM  
(the plot thickens)  
'Kanny. I kno+w this is go+ing to+ seem unseemly o+f me by yo+ur impo+ssibly high standards, and I kno+yo+u also+ hate that name, but I co+uld think o+f no+ o+ther way to+ make sure yo+ur highblo+o+d didn't see. And if yo+u have managed to+ save this fo+r yo+urself, I co+mmend yo+ur unusual restraint.

We're meting so+o+n,all o+f us. Fo+r a game Damara insists we simply must play. O+ne o+f her 'I just kno+w things' no+tions. She says we'll need yo+u. Be prepared.

PS: It wo+uld have been so+mething else but yo+u're hard to sho+p fo+r, Kanny. Happy wriggling day.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:39 PM  
He hugs himself, enjoying the warmth an the smell of the brooding caverns. Its nice to feel wanted.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:49 PM  
I think he feels conflicted about Equius Dying in the transfer to the medium  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:50 PM  
Yeah  
The relationship was very toxic, as nice and caring as Equius was  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:51 PM  
It was neglectful. After Kankri could take care of himself Equius just, stopped taking care of him. He still cared about the kid, but I think it was a miguided attempt at giving him agency.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:53 PM  
And the entire lecture about culling on Beforus. How Equius believes it for the most part, and is too loyal to question the ramifications  
Kankri is angry  
like, in canon too  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:53 PM  
ye  
he is!  
he was abused by the system of course hes angry  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:54 PM  
And it's a system that is so incredibly good at shutting people down  
in that twisted, 'well, you don't have a real REASON to be angry!' way  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:55 PM  
yep  
Kankri was trapped in a big, empty house, unable to leave and unable to connect to anyone but the friends he made online  
Also what do you think about his chastity being something enforced by the system  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:57 PM  
They were..novel, in a way. The books he got were banal and sanitized for the most part. Truthful, but very clean. His friends were brash and swore, and didn't seem to care if they hurt people sometimes - that was..incredible.  
I think it's totally good  
and accurate  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:57 PM  
he is a mutant  
they want to remove his genes from the pool  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:58 PM  
Beforus is seeped in ableism and it's like sterilizing autistic people  
eugenics  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:58 PM  
yep  
...  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:01 PM  
I think Kankri latching onto the (possibly historical innacurate) history of Beforus Karkat's chastity as a doctrine is him trying to take back his own agency over his sexuality  
How do you feel about medications Equius was just starting him on rghr before their game session that was a hormonal surpressant  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:03 PM  
I was gonna suggest he'd already been sterelized without his knowledge

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

yeah, I thought so fjshgs

That was about when Equius sorta dropped him

He wasn't there in his room after the surgery, when Kankri was feeling sick and numb and in dull pain for days

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

There was a lot of crying, and the old troll couldn't stand the sound of his charge in pain. It was what had to be done but that doesn't mean it's kind.

It also probably means Kankri appears very childlike

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Yea

He never grows very large and his skin doesn't darken asfast

His voiceboxes don't quite mature all the way, so he always sounds like a child

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

It's a pitiable quality. The sign of a culled troll

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

I think he hates Mituna a lot for it

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Mituna?

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

in Kankri's mind, the 'perfect' example of a cullable troll, but his accident happened in the game

he's 'broken' in Kankri's mind, just like him, but he still gets to live however he wants

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Ah

Ye

This boy needs a moirail

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

a very, VERY patient moirail

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Porrim tries, but Kankri hates feeling pitied

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

She knows how to treat children, not adults who speak like them

I think Kankri does go a bit for Cronus

he doesn't seem to care about him being culled, seems to see him as an equal, consenting party

even if he's a bit of a prick, but beggers can't be choosers

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Oh, sad thought

He starts feeling flushed

This is when he learns what was done to him.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

To be blunt, in troll terms, he cannot produce genmat, and if Cronus tries fucking him, he's dry. His bulge does not emerge. He feels love, and he wants to hold Cronus and pet his hair and kiss the stupid smug grin off his face 

but the seatroll's frustration with Kankri wipes the smile away soon enough.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

It hurts, it hurts so much to be pushed away for something he had no control over

They, start to fight

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Cronus's favorite line is 'what the fuck is your problem, it's just a joke, god.' or something similar

and Kankri can't explain the sinking in his stomach at whatever it was the other had said, or how it stuck with him for days, or how he had no words, despite everyone grumbling that he never shut up nowadays

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

He just wants to be valued. He's only ever wanted to be Loved and seen as a person, not a lost, scared little wriggler.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

I want them to come to earth c

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Please

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

I want him to meet Karkat

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Ye

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

The alpha trolls were another thing I'm not sure hussie knew what to do with once he'd said his piece with them

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

ye

I think that Kankri is very uncomfortable being alive again

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

There is a comfort in knowing you're functionally obsolete

now everything is new again

He's not shoutig into the void

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

he's being bombarded with new stimuli

thats when he meets Karkat.

Tiny, angry, shouty Karkat

Hes a godsend

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

In a way, he's voicing everything Kankri ever wanted to say with lightning heat and precision

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

He likes the kid. He's a firecracker, and he doesn't take shit

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

He expects the new world will opperate similar to the old one - human's Earth reminds him of Beforus

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

When he's told that no, he doesn't have to be in the care of another Troll and he's responsible for himself, he's shocked.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

He literally doesn't know the first thing to do

(where has he been living? with one of the other gods?)

I think someone puts it into his head at some point he should see a doctor for something small like a cold, and he has a minor anxiety attack

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Yep

He has to be dragged to the doctor's office. Karkat stays with him and holds his hand in the waiting room. He can tell Kankri is shaking.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Karkat says it's gonna be fine. He knows this doctor, a really good human one, spent years and years studying troll bodies. Kankri jumps when his name is called. Because he's an adult, though, Karkat's not allowed back with him. "Just tell 'em you've got a cough and we can go home faster then I kick Strider out for leaving hi underwear on the coffee table."

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Kankri is too nervous to appreciate the joke

The doctor is, nice, though they express concern at Kankri's condition. He looks like he's at most 9 sweeps old.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

They ask him if he's had back problems, or pain in his horns (as this may be an indicator for some troll pituitary imbalance) and he draws further into himself.

Kankri begins to suspect that Karkat taking him to the doctor for a sniffle was little more then a bad cover story

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

It wasn't, they're just concerned

Eventually he breaks and explains what was done to him

The doctor is horrified

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

They seriously, but gently ask if Kankri would like them to put him in contact with a specialist - to make sure there's no complications they don't know about yet from the..surgery. And also, someone for him to talk to, if he'd like.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Kankri, who is probably crying at this point, says yes

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

They do, and he leaves the office with a prescription to pick up at the pharmacy, and two numbers for two other offices. He doesn't tell Karkat about those. Not just yet.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

It's hard to convince himself to call

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

He cant decide which he should call first. Medical? Or psychological.. he's not sure. He knows by now he'sin pain from both. What...would he even say to them? He doesn't know what information they'd want from him. Will they be humans, like the lovely doctor, or trolls? Like him, but not like him?

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

It turns out that the therapist is a carapacian

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Kankri was never sure what to make of them. They're..an exceedingly nice people. Never a bad word said about them, so he hears.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

The carapacian is exceedingly empathetic

It's the first time Kankri hears that what was done to him was wrong

It was abuse

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

That he has a right to feel angry, and robbed as he does. And confused.

They don't talk about it on the first meeting, of course. That's mainly just a rudamentary getting-to-know-you. What is your schedule like, have you ever been on medications before, would you be open to using them if they felt they would help

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

The answer to that last one is very unsure. He remembers being medicated to keep him complacent.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

They assure him that all the advice they might give between them are only suggestions. The goal is to help Kankri and if something they say makes him uncomfortable he has every right to speak out and tell them firmly, no.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

It takes time for that to sink in

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

He's been moody and combative before. But his boundaries are very flimsy he finds.

They do ask him if he's comfortable wearing bright red, or if he feels like he should be wearing it as a marker of his 'disability' still.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

He thinks about it.

Red is his colour. Wearing anything else would feel like lying

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

It's not a long session, but he feels oddly light afterwards - he's not sure if it's the lowkey anxiety or the sudden knowledge that he's really doing this.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

It feels, good, when he thinks about it

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

...good feeling gone when he remembers he still has to make an appointment with the endocrinologist and/or someone who's basically an obgyn for trolls

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

This is the hardest thing for him

When he does go, he shakes so badly that they need to stop for a minute

The results are pretty gruesome

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Kankri is very lucky there's not more wrong then what's already obvious with his development

There's massive amount of scar tissue, and a buildup of hard 'kidney' stones from the cosmetic surgery to major organs

they cut a muscle which controls the bulge but also others an they're surprised Kankri's hips aren't immobile

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

There's also significant abrasions from his repeated attempts at pailing. Basically shits fucked in there

They recommend corrective surgery, to try to mitigate existing damage and make Kankri more comfortable

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

The thought of going under the knife again, the sheer amount of embarrassment of having to tell Karkat and the others why he's in hospital..

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

He says no

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

The specialist..then cannot recommend Kankri going on hormonal therapy as the shots would likely irritate the preexisting issues and make corrective surgery necessary.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

They've reached an impass

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

He

's more then frustrated enough to cry

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

He goes home and Absolutely destroys his room. It's the only kind of emotional release he knows how to do.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Wrecked. Destroyed. Just like everything he's ever known.

He feels deeply ashamed of his behavior like some spoiled wiggler who wants the cookie, but told to eat their greens first. Small, stupid, childish.

Karkat comes home

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

He finds Kankri curled up outside his door, hiding in his sweater

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

kankri isn't here. he's in sweater town right now..

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

basically

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Karkat knew he was going out today, but he didn't ask - he was giving the older troll some space to explore on his own, he figured. He didn't need his loud little shit of a dancestor sticking his busy-body sniffnub into ever corner of his new life alive. 

..Maybe he should have. He sits down and quietly asks what he's doing.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Kankri doesn't respond. He hasn't told Karkat that he was sterilized. He didn't want to

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

After a few moments, Karkat realizes he's not going to get an answer, and nods, going to put the groceries he'd gotten away, and getting a blanket from the back of the couch. He leaves it around Kankri's shoulders and starts to make some tea. Maybe turn the tv on quietly for some background noise.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

It's a couple hours before Kankri moves. When he does it's to sit on the couch with Karkat. 

"I went to another doctor today. To talk about... The stunting thing."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Karkat listens and just nods. He..supposes he'd have liked to know that, but again, it's Kankri's life and he deserves his privacy. "It didn't go..well?" He hedges.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

"They said that I would need surgery if I want to start hormone therapy. So. No, not really." He won't look at Karkat as he says this.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Karkat's brow furrowed. "Surgery? For what? Isn't this like, a glandular issue or something?" 

He can see the way Kankri's face changes though, and takes the highroad for now. "Uh- alright, shit. So. Ok. That's just on the table for now... So now what?"

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

"I don't know." The older Trolls voice is miserable. "I don't know what to do anymore."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Karkat makes a sympathetic noise he didn't quite mean to let out. He just sounds so dreary. He's only ever seen..Dave like this, all the way back, on the meteor, when the both of them were trying to fight their way out of the maze of their own minds and past. 

After a while, he glances at the clock, and huffs. He stands, and offers a hand to Kankri. "Well, for right now you can help with dinner. Starch fake-worms and savory heartfruit sauce - or as the humans say is oh so snobbishly, 'spaghetti' sound good?"

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

"mmhm" He looks at Karkat, and, smiles a little. " Thanks Karkat"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

"Eeehhg-" Karkat shrugs off the thanks, though they both know the little spitfire is always more then open for such things. For offering a home and a distraction and..everything. He knows. Someone's got to.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Karkat makes dinner and they eat in relative silence. A few weeks later, the therapist suggests that maybe, If Kankri want to share what happened to him, it might be easier to write it down

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Kankri...likes writing. He's attempted to write some poetry, and some short stories, though those have fizzled out as quick as they'd come. The enormity of explaining it all, even in writing feels daunting though. The therapist tells him that he doesn't have to do it all at once. Just whatever comes, and if he begins feeling overwhelmed, to take a break, and leave it for a bit. Again, he doesn't have to, but Kankri is good with words when he wants to be, when he's given the time for them.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Kankri does start to write. its. a lot.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

He formats it at first as a letter. To who, he's..not sure. Karkat, he supposes, as thats the point. But he still leaves it 'Dear....to whom it may concern,' and begins. 

It's a mess at first. It's awkward, and the flow isn't there, and it feels like pulling teeth. He says he was a cullee on Beforus, and what that means. Shallowly, at least. He says he was given to the Zahhak, a wonderfully kind old troll..

and stalls at that.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

He feels like he's not telling the truth. Which is bizarre, he loved the old troll dearly, even if they fought a lot near the end.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

He sighs and deletes the line anyway. Objective. He should just be, objective. The Zahhak was doing his duty as set forth in ordinance by Her Incandescence. The old blue cared about Kankri, that much is true, he feels, but. He guesses. It wasn't what was. Best. For Kankri, not really. They were both filling roles and doing as they were told, the best they could.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Again, he stalls. That doesn't seem right either. He starts a new document.

Beforus was a gilded cage. A prison for its oddities. I was the squakbeast who's feathers they carefully clipped, claiming it was what was best for me.

I will never be able to have a matesprite. Not in the way deemed acceptable by others. I feel red emotions, that part of me is something they could never touch. But ill never be able to fulfill the conspicuant requirements of a relationship like that. Because I was deemed unworthy of the right to reproduce. They hurt me, Mutilated me, and told me it was the right thing to do. And I believed them.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

(oh thats so good!!)

Not that I could tell them 'no.' 'No' was a word kept well out of my reach like small, grabby hands from pottery dating back centuries of sweeps. Much the same as I shall forever have if I cannot stare down the enormity of everything that has been my life thus far, and win. Which is impossible, I fear. I don't know this beast, and it seems to know me more then I do, a fight so unfair it feels as though I am alone against an army set about my ruination. As if there is much left to ruin. 

He takes a step back, and refocuses. 

In the end I ask not for your comprehension, but merely your time. I know myself well enough to know that alone is a challenge, and I won't attempt to make excuses for myself. I've hurt others because I was hurting and misery loved nothing more then company. I ask for time, aspects be damned. And if I'm very lucky, your compassion. I will not be kind to myself or others at times. I will not be simple. But that is the essence of being a full person, is it not? It has not been long, but I have already learned and come farther then in a million years of obsolescent existence in a void between time and space.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

He sits back, rereading his words. The raw pain in them suprises him

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

And to just have. Just said it. He was mutilated. He was harmed, not beyond recovery, but beyond repair.

By people he trusted. Loved, even.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

that possibly is what hurts the most about this whole wretched situation. He did love his guardian, the same way a grub loves their lusus. And he's sure the troll loved him too. Yet he still let this happen, encouraged it even. Its difficult to even think of.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

It's not the first time he wishes bitterly that he could have the old troll here. So he could...lay this all at his feet, he supposes. Let him make sense of it all, and leave Kankri alone with a clear head for once. He misses him with a bleeding bloodpump, but the very thought of seeing his large, worn, too-gentle face ever again makes him feel rage like nothing else. He doesn't know what to do with it. 

He sets the letter aside and decides to leave it for now. His therapist said to take his time.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

It takes a few months for him to work up enough courage to tell anyone what happened. He starts with Karkat.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

The 'letter' by this point is long. He hasn't really deleted any parts of it, most of it raw writing, but that's the point. He can see Karkat's expression shift as he talks about the medical things, how Beforus treated cullees. He wrings his hands a little as he sits and waits. 

Karkat is very quiet for a long time. He looks with trepidation at his..brother. They are like human brothers now, aren't they? It's a nice feeling. "May I hug you?" He asks.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Kankri nods. Karkat hugs him tight. he gives good hugs.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

It gets easier after that. A bit. His own friends are a mixed bag of reactions. Porrim is still pitying, but at least after she reads it she knows better. Cronus..Kankri sends him the document and has several stilted conversations with him over text. It doesn't really go anywhere, which he's thankfully glad for. He just thought the seatroll ought to know, not for the fact he cared about Cronus's thoughts on the matter. Dave is also very understanding. He likes the human, thinks he's good for Karkat.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

he keeps it to himself mostly

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Its not something everyone has to know, after all. Just those he feels ought to. 

He makes another appointment, several long months after the first. To at least hear what such a procedure would..consist of.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

(that is the ultdirk trying to take control of our narratives, the fuckass) 

Kankri sits on this for a while, and talks about doing it with his therapist and Karkat. Karakt thinks it's a good idea, if Kankri does. He just wants him happy. 

(AAAAAAAAA)

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

(I need them to be good siblings)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

(I think I'm going to archive this one, this has been good)

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

(yes please)

Kankri eventually decides to do it. the tipping point is Karkat's molt

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

He's been hedging on adulthood for a while, and his body finally felt enough stress leave to allow him to jump that final hurtle. Kankri knows the signs, too. Gorging, alternating restlessness and lethargy. After his brother's molt. Then he'll arrange for it. Right now,he wants to be there for Karkat like he was for him.

Berd Alert (Cassa)04/07/2020

Karkat is, very large after he molts

Thinker (themarginalthinker)04/07/2020

Karkat was a bit smaller then normal because of his own upbringing, but they'd been about the same height, if looking like Kankri was still younger. Now the..gap is quit significant. Kankri hasn't been around a troll taller then a head over him in..a while.

  
  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:39 PM  
Karkat tries not to make a big deal of it  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:41 PM  
He knows it doesn't help with Kankri's dysphoria though. And..even after the surgery, there'll still be the likely-years of hormone treatment to go through. He starts trying to get Kankri involved in other things outside of the house - to help him distract, maybe. Bookclubs, or photograhy, or writer's groups.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:42 PM  
Kankri likes writing  
It helps him process  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:43 PM  
Karkat asks if he wants to publish some of the less personal stuff?  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:43 PM  
He does  
Its thinly veiled stories about Beforus  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:45 PM  
He has Karkat proofread and sometimes edit it - if just for clarity and technical. Karkat thinks the characters are great - he can even see some of the twistedness of Alternia in some of the stories.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:48 PM  
Here's a sentence I'd never thought I'd write. Kankri writes horror novels  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:48 PM  
HE DOES  
the boy finds an outlet  
he loves stephen king, among others  
He'd never been allowed to so much as look at something like that back on Beforus  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:50 PM  
A lot of his stories are about being trapped band not knowing it  
Ye  
He was extremely sheltered  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:51 PM  
his stories are a lot of the 'the horror just gets deeper'  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:53 PM  
Yep  
Things are wrong on the surface, but the more you dig the worse it gets  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:54 PM  
Karkat says the tension buildup is great  
the whole thing reads like a panic attack  
Kankri: ....thank you?  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:55 PM  
Karkat: you're welcome.  
Kankri is more or less satisfied after that. He writes (horror to Karkat's Romance) and spends time with his brother and their friends. He gets a little less insufferable too  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:58 PM  
He recognizes his moods and what causes them more. He is open with people more, finds real hobbies and makes new friends who are maybe a little curious about his condition, but never ask about it or see it as deficient. His being a mutant at all is never commented on.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:01 PM  
I really wanna give him a romantic partner  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:02 PM  
hhMMM  
canon or an oc  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:02 PM  
I have no idea  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:03 PM  
bc my first thought was like 'dirkri'  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:03 PM  
YES  
especially because my hc for dirk is GreyAce  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:04 PM  
THIS SHALL BE IDEAL MWHAHA  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:04 PM  
Kankri meets Dirk at a party  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:05 PM  
Dirk is also a character whos childhood home was less then ideal, and his own body shows it. The scar across the neck, the way he's thin and wiry from never enough to eat, his awkwardness with spoken word - hinging into only semi-verbal  
He's seen some of the troll's stuff though, the paperback section  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:07 PM  
they get to talking  
Dirk asks where he gets his ideas  
Kankri says a lot of it is based on personal experience, twisted to be scary  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:10 PM  
(it's odd, he thinks, how the fear came later. In the moment, he just remembers feeling lonely and numb and bored even)  
Dirk nods. He can understand that. There's a lot of shit all of them who played the game gotta get through - even if it had nothing to do with the game.  
He asks Kankri if he drinks  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:12 PM  
"Not really. It causes some issues with my health." He has a glass of apple juice in his hand as they talk.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:14 PM  
Again, Dirk nods. That's fair, he's got a couple friends who steer clear of it. Kankri knows - the other gods, right?

Dirk asks if he dances instead.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:15 PM  
Kankri shrugs.  
"I've never tried. Could you show me?"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:18 PM  
Say what you will about carapacians, but they DO know how to throw down the sickest beats when taught so by their magnanimous dropwizard overlords. The party is one of the many small holiday ones, people wandering in and out, the music preformed in the back steady enough for people to dance to if they like.

Dirk takes Kankri's hand and leads him out into the crowd, nodding his head to the beat. The DJ isn't bad. People jump and sway around them.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:23 PM  
Kankri seems to be a little unsure. but he sways in time to the beat, hands on Dirk's shoulders. Its a nice song, and its nice to have Dirk guiding him  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:26 PM  
They finish the song out and pull away. Dirk's hands linger on his wait a bit, before slipping off.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:28 PM  
Dirk smiles a little, and Kankri smiles back. He feels warm, and fluttery. Its nice.  
He falls hard and fast.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:30 PM  
This was nothing like with Cronus. There, it was almost a desperate, giddy need to be wanted. Seen, heard. To prove something to himself. Here, it's. Like a friendship, but more. He makes the first move, asking Dirk out for coffee and to browse some stores. Dirk invites him over to the small place he's alone in. Turns out living in a big city after a lifetime alone does hell for your personal bubble.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:42 PM  
They kiss for the first time several weeks later  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:44 PM  
Kankri knows that Dirk is Dave's brother, so he doesn't need to vet him about the 'I'm an adult, I jut have physical problems' thing. But..there is some trepidation about kissing. Kankri enjoys it! But. He just feels a little nervous. Because these are not pale feelings. These are flushed.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:45 PM  
He's afraid of what comes next.  
they do date for a while before Kankri tries to back out  
He's very afraid of the eventual conversation he's going to have to have if this continues.  
I don't think Dirk understands what's happening at first  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:53 PM  
He invited Dirk out, somewhere neutral so it doesn't have to happen at one of their homes. He tells Dirk he's a wonderful human and matesprite, and he's going to make someone very happy one day. But Kankri has to cut things off here before either of them get hurt.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:54 PM  
Dirk is upset  
He hides it  
but hes really hurt  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:54 PM  
He asks if he did something wrong. If he overstepped somewhere  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:57 PM  
Kankri shakes his head. He looks away. "No. It's nothing you did, I just. It's me, I can't- do this. I'll only disappoint you."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:59 PM  
"How? You don't have to do anything, just. Be you. Be here, I don't - Kanks, what's going on? Are you ok?"  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:02 PM  
"Stop. Dirk, please. I can't- do this. I can't be with you, not like this. You won't want me anymore if I tell you."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:05 PM  
Dirk gets, a little bit upset at that, that Kankri would think that lowly of him, but the troll is already a bit upset, so he keeps his Strider chill. "Dude. My guy. Unless you like, murdered someone and are keeping their body in your fridge, I doubt there's much you can tell me about you to push me away. Just.."

He looks at the troll pleadingly. If..he wants this..really wants to go..then of course Dirk won't follow. "That's unfair."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:06 PM  
Kankri breaks then. He starts to sob. literally, shaking, sobbing, just a wreck  
He can't stop  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:07 PM  
h shit, did dirk push too far?  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:11 PM  
Not really  
Kankri doesn't want to do this  
Dirks insistence that he won't leave is too much for him to deal with  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:12 PM  
b by  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:12 PM  
He tells Dirk Everything  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:15 PM  
He does't even have his script to go off of, it just. Comes out. He doesn't get into detail, but the human understands well enough. Clever Dirk. Kankri really does love his brain.

He stands up and puts a hand on the troll's shoulder. "I think I oughtta tell you something too, then."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:29 PM  
Kankri sniffs and looks at him. "What?"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:30 PM  
"I'm ace." He pauses for a moment. "Like, not like, cool or charming like 'oh, he's aces' or something. I mean, I am, but-" Dirk waffles, pullig away to try to explain.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:35 PM  
he can see the dawning realization on Kankri's face. he starts crying again, but he hugs Dirk tight.  
"Fuck, I love you so much you big, brilliant idiot"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:38 PM  
The force of his hug practically drags them both to the floor, Dirk struggling to keep them uprght. "Aw jeez, I keep forgetting how dense you troll are, should call you 'Kank the Tank'," he wheezes, and eventually settles on the floor. He wraps his arms firmly around his troll, so, so relieved he's not losing him. "Love you. Love you, dude. Everything about that."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:38 PM  
Kankri kisses him a lot  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:40 PM  
Dirk does explain a bit more, the boundaries of his sexuality. Sometimes he is horny, mostly not. It just happens when it happens, and its not a thing for Kankri to worry about. He asks the troll if he'd like to stay the night.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:40 PM  
Kankri says yes.  
They share a bed  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:41 PM  
It's been a LONG damn time since Kankri's done that with anyone  
ghost don't sleep, so  
the last time he recalls something like this..was back on Beforus  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:43 PM  
those memories are fuzzy at best.  
but Dirk is warm, and solid, and he snores quietly which is ridiculously endearing  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:47 PM  
The apartment is small, and filled with various bits of robots. There's only the bedroom and the kitchen and the living room. Despite being a god, Dirk seems to care little for the trapping of such that all the kingdoms of the world had set up for them, only ceremonial in his interacting with them. Kankri now has a small home that perhaps, there's room for him here too. Room Dirk has made, and that Kankri takes with him. Because he's owed that. He is to himself. And that's fine.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:57 PM  
I think that's where we leave it. Kankri has found love and happiness, and he's recovering.


	7. Paper Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sci-fi setting.
> 
> A deadly virus breaks out on the spacevessel Timaeus, killing all in her hold...except a pair of brothers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Be ready for an initial bit of 'hurt/no comfort' in this one, folks. Things get a bit happier at the end, but this is a very sad scenario, so. You've been duly warned.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:18 PM  
Okay basically  
It's a SciFi setting. Dirk and Dave are the last survivors on a ship that was wiped out by a super deadly, kills in hours kind of plague. Dave wasn't infected thanks to a quick and total Quarentine, but Dirk is a non-symptomatic carrier, so they can't go to any planet while Dirk tries to find a cure. He's 18, Dave is 9, and they are able to talk but not actually be near each other.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:29 PM  
Enter Jake, who boards the ship looking to like, do some exploring and possibly looting. When he finds out there are people on this ship he's a little freaked out. He stays for about a week, Making friends with the two boys and giving Dave some company, and he offers to take them to a planet nearby. Dirk refuses.

One night, Daves woken up by Jake shaking him. He's saying that they need to leave, now, or Jake won't have enough fuel to get them to a inhabited world. Dave doesn't want to leave, he asks what Dirk thinks, but Jake says there's no time and grabs him.

The last time Dave sees his brother, it's from behind a wall of glass as he's pulled onto a ship bound for god knows where. Dirk is crying, one hand pressed to the Quarentine wall.  
They never see eachother again  
Dave tries to get the ship found when he's older, but with no guarantee that it's not still carrying a plague nothing is done. So, in one last desperate attempt, Dave starts sending video letters to the ship, hoping they'll reach Dirk  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:40 PM  
He's almost 30 when he finally gets a response. A message containing the ship's ai (Hal), and Thousands of ship logs. He listens to them. They're his brother, talking to him across lightyears. He's so, broken, when Dave hears him. He's alone, has been for a long time, and he's scared. With no hope of rescue all Dirk can do is wait for the life support systems to fail. And then he finds the log for the day he was taken. 

Dirk had found the cure. He just needed a few more days, a few more hours, even. But Jake hadn't listened, and left without him. He doesn't actually seem angry, just deeply, gut wrenchingly sad. It feels like a terrible, cruel joke. Dirk Could have been here, he could have been able to see the sky and walk on the earth and Dave would have had his older brother to take care of him Instead of a foster system that cared more about his past then his future. But it didn't happen, and now Dirk is going to die alone for no reason. No great sacrifice, no justice. Just a Terrible, meaningless waste.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:44 PM  
That  
is definitely some hurt no comfort  
sounds like the backstory for Dave  
wonder if Dirk ever made an audio log about begging Hal to let him jump out an airlock  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:45 PM  
He didn't, but that's because the only thing keeping him going was Dave's messages. Thing is, Dave stopped making them.  
Dirk had no idea why the messages stopped  
One of the logs near the end is him speculating what happened. He says he hoped that Dave didn't die. His little brother dying before he did would be too much of bear. 

He tells the log he's planning on killing himself when supplies get low. He doesn't want to freeze to death in the vaccum of space.  
This is when Hal steps in and explains that Dirk has actually already died.  
That's why he's here, and why Dave has the messages  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:50 PM  
omg   
ghost au?  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:51 PM  
Maybe a ghost in the machine au, but I always pictured it as Dave trying to deal with the fact he's really gone.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:53 PM  
I've never seen ghost in the machine.   
Dave doesn't want to think of such a lonely, painful end for his brother  
He asks Hal if he was just making some of those later logs up  
about finding the cure  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:54 PM  
Hal says no. He really had found a cure. He was immunized and completely safe.  
The last log is a goodbye. It's long and rambling and Dirk starts crying so badly it's incoherent at some points. Mercifully it cuts off before Dirk actually dies, but it does detail the method. A lethal injection. Dave's brother was put down like a dog.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:57 PM  
little detail, Hal kept recording until Dirk literally died, just..he felt he owed it to the human.  
He has a video file of the Event. If you look closely, you can see the medical bot is holding his hand. An empty facsimile of comfort.  
Dave doesn't want to watch it. But I think he feels like he has to  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:04 PM  
He wants it to be..something. He does't know what he was expecting, but a washed-out security-like feed of his brother, looking haggard and thin and tired in a way that lacked words, moving slowly about a medical ward while he fucked about with a bot for most of the video wasn't it. Dave knows what he's doing anyway. Only Dirk would be smart enough to find a way to dismantle its Asimov protocols to allow him to do this in its presence.

The last twenty minutes or so is where Dave an barely stand to watch. Dirk sits back on a table, and starts up the final audio log, which Dave has heard.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:07 PM  
It's so much worse, watching him turn away so he can sob. He shakes the whole time he's making it. The last line is the hardest part to see. There's no Audio, but he can see Dirk's lips moving.

I love you, my little north star. I wish we'd had more time together.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:13 PM  
Dave can see the timestamp of this - Dirk had stopped formally beginning and ending his logs after a few weeks worth of them, when he knew it was just one person he was speaking to, but Hal included them anyway. Good ai. Dave knows when this happened. Dirk's 35'th birthday. Dave. Dave would have been..15. Dave would have been 15 years old, five years after Jake stole him away. 

Dave keeps scrubbing his eyes clear, so he can keep watching, chest in pain from trying not to lose it just like Dirk. He watches him close the audio. He sees him glance up, Hal evidently saying something, but Dirk turns away and.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:15 PM  
He can't. He can't watch it.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:17 PM  
Dave refuses to have the last bit of his brother in his mind ever be him self-injecting poison and laying down in an empty, cold medical ward in a tomb of a ship in the middle of the black, empty cosmos, and dying while robots watched on. 

He lays down on the floor of his kitchen and doesn't wake up for a long time - not that he thinks he sleeps.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:19 PM  
It's, hard. Carrying on after that. Trying to pick up the pieces of his life while he mourns a man dead for 15 years.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:21 PM  
Sollux contacts him - the troll tech wiz who had gotten Dave into the still-running ship's servers to even collect those messages and talk to Hal. When Dave doesn't get back to him about what that was all about, he thinks it's just a lost thread and leaves it, mentioning it off-hand to his moirail Karkat.  
(are..you ok with this actually having some comfort?)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:22 PM  
(yeah obviously)  
Karkat is... Concerned. He's read about Dave, the guy was in the news for years after they brought him to the planet. He asks if he knows where Dave lives  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:29 PM  
Sollux shrugs - he was never really interested in the guy's personal life, but, he can probably find out. They do, and Karkat decides..he's going to look into Dave, especially after he pesters Sollux to let him see his emails and messages with him. Sollux rolls his eyes and mutters something about Karkat being pale for the blackness of space, if he could be..  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:29 PM  
(Dave has been subconsciously self isolating so he lives in a tiny one bedroom efficiency apartment  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:29 PM  
(yep. Barely leaves it, barely talks to even Rose and Roxy who found him after he was a minor celebrity.)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:36 PM  
(this is what happens when your formative years are spent behind Quarentine walls)  
Karkat tracks down his address.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:40 PM  
Dave definitely has some unaddressed agoraphobia, and a fair amount of wariness about strangers. Hes..not used to people in general. Karkat stands at the little foyer in the building and finds the intercom with the simple digital interface, and taps 'Strider. D.' 

..."Yeah?" a voice comes after enough time Karkat is about ready to walk away.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:41 PM  
"uh, hi, I'm a friend of Sollux? He asked me to check in on you." Karkat hopes the lie is convincing  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:42 PM  
There's some shuffling on the other end. "I don't - know anyone by that name."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:43 PM  
"he helped you recover some files? An AI and log from a ghost ship."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:47 PM  
There is a very long pause, and Karkat can't hear any noise, and the screen shows that the comm had disconnected. He waits around for a bit, getting some looks from a few passers-by who lived in the building, and after about fifteen minutes, figures nothing else is going to come of this. He probably should have known better. 

When he makes to leave, hoping he can find something to occupy himself for the day in this city while he waits for this flight time to come, the door beeps and opens, and he's met with a a wraith of a human, staring at him.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:01 PM  
Dave is very tall and startlingly thin, and has the telltale lack of pigment Of a child born in space. His clothes don't fit him right, they're baggy and oversized. He's not wearing shoes.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:04 PM  
He's nothing like the small, brushed up and well-dressed child he'd seen interviews of, the pictures of 'The Last Survivor' splashed across the less reputable tabloid sites. Fame, especially the kind you didn't ask for and the kind that was like an aspirin offered after having your heart cut out, really wasn't everything. 

"Uh. Hi. I didn't mean to disturb you, if this is a bad time."  
Dave kind of shrugs.

"Not really a better time. Do you... Want to come in?"  
(oooh nooo bad thought. Jake never told anyone about Dirk.)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:07 PM  
(He did not. Not because he was malicious about it, but just because Dave never mentioned it, and Jake just assumed Dirk had died as well.)

Karkat nods, grabbing up his bag a bit tighter. "Alright, if you're comfortable with that." He follows after, watching Dave closely.  
(..Dave might contact Jake at one point, to tell him all this)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:09 PM  
(oh I might not have made it clear, Jake knew there was another person alive on the ship somewhere. He just, made the hard choice to take the healthy child and leave whoever it was because there was no time)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:11 PM  
(oh, no, I know what you meant as well. Jake likely wouldn't have wanted the limelight suddenly on HIM for making that call, and then getting bombarded with people looking to find Dirk when Jake really does think Dirk is likely dead by now.)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:16 PM  
(ye)

Dave's little apartment is covered in tiny origami stars. He doesn't seem to care that they clutter just about every surface. Not that there are many surfaces to clutter. A tiny kitchenette, a sitting area the size of a broom closet, a bedroom with no windows, and a tiny Bathroom with a shower that's more like a coffin.  
Only about 100 square feet in the whole place  
He sits down in the one chair and picks up a strip of paper, and as Karkat watches he folds another little star. He seems to have no interest in talking to Karkat  
Karkat kind of, looks around and goes "You. Really live here? It seems kind of... Small."  
(yo what if Dave's apartment stimulated a low gravity environment)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:35 PM  
(in the age of tech, it likely can.)   
Dave doesn't look up at him at all, only raises an eyebrow and keeps folding. Karkat then sets his bag down, and sits on the floor as there are no other seats aside from the one Dave's in. He has no idea what to actually say. He doesn't know what he was expecting, but not this. The walls are bare, the holographic wallpaper not even turned on exposing the bare metal of the walls. The lights arent to any particular settings, just running florescent, making everything uncomfortably even lighting. There's no nicknaks to even comment on - 

then Karkats eyes light on a single, simple photoframe, meant for a changing array of pictures to scroll across it. He's got one in his own home of his family. 

The one on Dave's wall, under the only window in the place, shows only one picure, ship uniform pressed and perfect, mouth in a serious line. Hair and eyes and skin just as manufacturally pale as Dave's.  
The sidetable under the picture has the most stars atop it, spilling over into a pile on the floor when the pile on the table got too big.  
(dave turning on the low grav in the middle of the night, karkat who stays over waking up like aAAAAA-)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:52 PM  
The person in the picture has orange eyes and a smattering of freckles, but he looks like Dave. The name on his uniform says Strider D. 

Karkat can't help but ask. "Who is this?"  
(their ship was called The Timaeus btw)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:57 PM  
Dave's fingers stumble on the star he's making, face going tight, and hands crushing the delicate paper. He makes a small sound in his throat, and stares down at the little thing, crumpled. 

"Mm.." he mumbles, looking like the words keep getting stuck.  
After long moments, where it seems like an actual physical effort is needed to turn his head to look somewhere else, he gets out, "..br'ther.."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:22 PM  
"your brother?" Karkat looks at the picture again. 

"I thought you were the only one left on the Timaeus."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:26 PM  
Dave makes another uncertain noise, and leaves the crushed paper on the table. He levels Karkat with a furrowed brow and narrowed eyes. "No. Wh- no. I didn't say but-" He looks confused.  
"There were a lot of people working and living there. He's. Not, he's not-"Dave trails off, hoping Karkat understands.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:31 PM  
"did he pass in the outbreak?" Karkat asks. He's trying to be gentle. He had extended family on ships that were completely wiped out, he knows how hard it can be.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:34 PM  
Dave sighs and. Leans back. He rubs his hands over his face, and his lips are tight. He looks at Karkat like he doesn't know whether to be upset with him or question whether he exists or not. 

"..Why are you here?" He asks. "Do you..want to interview me? About the plague?"  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:38 PM  
"I thought you... Might need someone to talk to. I can, I mean if you don't want me here I should, leave but... I think it might be good for you?"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:41 PM  
"I'm fine," Dave says, automatically, practically before Karkat's finished speaking. "People already look out for me." He picks up another piece of paper. It's like it's something for his fingers to do, rather then something he thinks about. Another to the pile.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:48 PM  
"I don't think you are. Tell me Dave, have you ever talked to anyone about this?"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:50 PM  
"Sure," Dave says. "You said you saw the videos, and stuff. I talked to the people who asked me about it." He doesn't see to understand what Karkat's actually after.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:52 PM  
"when you were ten. Have you ever tried to talk to, say, a counselor? Someone who would help you deal with the Feelings?"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:56 PM  
Dave pauses, mind turning. If he tells someone..about Dirk, about him connecting to the Timaeus and Hal, he. He could get in trouble. Lots of it. And..Sollux? Was his name? twinArmagedons. And it's not like people cared anymore - it happened a long time ago. Get over it. And. 

And he doesn't feel like sharing that. Those logs. With other people. Dirk made them for him - they're all he has left. 

Dave doesn't realize he's stopped messing with the origami, and is just sitting stock still in the chair, staring off into space.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:57 PM  
"...Dave?" Karkat stands up and walks over, reaching out for the young man.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:59 PM  
"Don't! You're not supposed to touch anyone!" Dave shouts as he stands up and glares at Karkat, eyes somewhere else. Somewhen else. He stumbles off to his bedroom, and closes the door. He can hear panting from the other side.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:01 PM  
Karkat stands there, staring at the closed door. He thinks maybe he should go, but- 

No. Dave needs help. He's going to get him that help.

(What if Karkat found the files?)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:04 PM  
Karkat has to extend his stay, and tell Sollux what's up. That Dave's..bad. Worse then people probably think. Sollux mentions that, well, yeah, the guy was pulled off a ship where everyone was dead Kk. It didn't help the dude went back and connected to the ship's ai for some damn reason. 'Idk, Kk, snoop in his computer or something if you're gonna play live-in nannynurse, or just come home.'  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:06 PM  
Karkat does take a look through the files. Dave's com isn't even password protected.

The entire history of the ship is there. He starts looking around for the start of the outbreak.

I would stop, if I were you.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:11 PM  
Karkat about has an anurism when the red text pops up in some program he didn't open. The 'username' displayed is a long series of serial codes and numbers, the only thng recognizable being 'AR_620413_InSytm_LIK_TimaeusTEST'

"What the fuck.." Karkat whispers. It's been over a decade. Why. Why is the ship's ai still onwhen the ship itself should be a broken down hunk of space junk, let alone talking to him.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:13 PM  
you appear to be confused as to my presence. The answer is very simple. I uploaded a copy of myself into this operating system when these files were transferred. Now, I request you stop searching. You do not want to see what is stored on this database.  
There are very few details about the plague that struck the Timaeus. Only that it killed in hours upon contraction, and that it was passed through the air.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:19 PM  
Most of what Karkat finds is just that - short, dry descriptions about things he already knew. here and there..there are jumps in information, or timestamps, like things are missing. Or being hidden from him, especially during the later parts when the system started breaking down and maydays were being canceled. 

He growls at the machine. "Who are you 'protecting' with this? It's clearly not Dave, since he's in such a state he flashes back apparently. Did you keep this from everyone? Everyone else who tried to help?"  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:21 PM  
that was not my decision to make. The captain is the one who Quarentined the ship. He let his the one who let his whole crew die. I was following orders

Something slips through the blackout. A video file.  
Karkat opens it.  
It's a hallway, a glass barrier blocking the exit of a room. There are, people on the other side, clawing at the glass, banging on it. Then one starts to convulse. And then another. The video has no audio feed, but Karkat can tell the people are screaming. 

No one knows what the Timaeus virus did to its victims. Karkat never expected what he sees.

The people in the video start to decompose as he watches. Flesh melting off bones, bubbling and turning black, eyes wither, hair falls out. All that's left at the end of it is a pile of bones and putred meat.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:30 PM  
damn, jeez, alrighty then  
There's a blur in the security feed, and the few seconds Karkat is still able to watch it before the computer freezes, ends the program, and reboots itself, he thinks he sees someone running past in frame, down the hallway. A flash of pale hair, something being carried, but he cant tell. All the people born and raised on ships have those features. 

As it stands, he doesn't have the peace of mind to really contemplate if it was anything at all, because Krkat's too busy emptying his stomach on the floor of the apartment.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:32 PM  
I did warn you a synthetic voice says.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:34 PM  
"sSshut up..." Karkat slurs, stumbling to the kitchenette sink. 

"....so..Dave and his brother lived through. That? That doesn't look very survivable."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:38 PM  
Dave was never exposed to the virus. His brother, Dirk, happened to be naturally immune. But it became obvious rather quickly he still carried the virus. 

A holographic video player pops up, showing a small boy playing next to one of the Quarentine walls. An older child sits on the other side, watching with his hand pressed to the glass. He has a tired smile on his face.

He would have done anything for Dave. Even stay away while he tried to find a cure.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:47 PM  
Karkat blinks at the image on the screen. He clenches his hands on the sink, glancing to the door to Dave's bedroom, still closed, and quiet. 

He turns around, looking across the sad little space. He wonders if, for Dave, there's something comforting in the sanitized, industrial silence of the metal walls and tiny room. Something he can't let go, because it would mean forgetting. Something occurs to him, then.

"Wait - so, if Dirk was immune but a carrier, then he didn't. Die." Karkat said.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:48 PM  
Correct.

The video flicks off.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:49 PM  
Karkat is left in the silence.  
He exists the appartment.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:52 PM  
His mind is spinning, he feels dizzy. Numb. He should go home. Instead, he notices that the apartment next to Dave's is empty, and the plaque on the door says "for sale, low prices"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:56 PM  
He does indeed end up going home with his flight that night, but the ensuing conversation with Sollux is long, and in the end, though Sollux has no idea why exactly Karkat thinks he has to do this for a fucking stranger, he agrees that he was planning on moving in with his matesprite Aradia soon anyway, so. Karkat might as well do this. 

Its five months later, and Karkat is very glad the largest part of his possessions is his wardrobe. He goes to knock on the door this time, instead of making Dave come down for him. Time..to try again.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:58 PM  
Dave isn't the one to open the door. Instead, the ship AI pops up 

He doesn't like visitors. They make him nervous.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:01 PM  
Karkat tries not to feel like Dave is rejecting this; after all...it's not like he asked for this.. He decides to ask the AI if he can tell Dave it's. Him. Karkat. The guy he met before. He. Didn't apologize for the mess of things he made last time. Dave is owed at least that much.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:02 PM  
The AI agrees and the door goes dark. A few minutes later it opens. Dave is standing there, exactly the same as Karkat remembers. He might be wearing the same clothes. 

"They don't usually come back."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:07 PM  
"Well, then 'they' are a piss-poor excuse of a person acting like they care, aren't they?" Karkat says. He sighs, and makes sure to not offer a hand. Dave didn't seem to like that much last time. "I'm Karkat Vantas. I'm moving in next door, just down the hall. I didn't mean to hurt you, last time we spoke. It really wasn't my place, and I'm more then fucking sorry."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:12 PM  
Dave watches him for a moment, then nods. 

"Apology accepted. Now if you don't mind, I have- things, to do."  
Karkat can see a bit of the apartment behind him, it's entirely bare, with no signs of the paper stars that were there last time.  
(people come to clean and sterilize the apartment once a month. It's always empty afterwards)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:18 PM  
(aw :<)  
Karkat nods, stepping back. "Uh, sure. Right. So, I guess I just wanted you to know that, and um. If you ever need anything, or want someone. For something. I'm. Right there. And. Leaving now."

Karkat turns, and he can hear the door about to slide closed, when Karkat turns around and hastily adds, "My friend Terezi who's an absolute fucking freak but who is one of my best friends and I couldn't get to keep her paws off is helping me unpack mater tonight, and f you wanted you could stop by for dinner, it's on me, order-in, alright, good afternoon." He runs back to his own and slams the door, face burning. Great..  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:25 PM  
Terezi shows up an hour later. Karkat's apartment is slightly larger than Dave's, a deluxe room meant for two occupants. So it can comfortably fit them. They're almost done when there's a knock on the door.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:40 PM  
Dave is very not prepared for Terezi  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:41 PM  
He's not. It took Hal a good few hours to convince him to just..go for a few minutes, at least so Dave didn't have to cook dinner after having to deal with apartment sweeps. 

Terezi gets physically close, and Dave doesn't like that much. He's never been close to any trolls, let alone ones at her caliber.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:44 PM  
He scoots himself into the corner of the tiny couch and tries to just, exist around other people for a bit.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:49 PM  
Karkat is on Terezi like a viper, pulling her aside when he sees Dave shrink into himself. He tells her that Dave's..a little different. He doesn't..do people well. 

Dave listens to all this troll speech passing back and forth.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:52 PM  
It's nice, he likes the way they sound. Soothing and chittery, like the recordings of birds he used to fall asleep to as a kid.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:55 PM  
They have the screen every apartment comes with set up, just playing a local music station. Since most of Karkat's things are unpacked, he sets up a movie instead. He asks Dave if there's anything from the place they're ordering from he likes, trying to be inclusive. 

The movie is something Alternian - it's four hours long. It's not dubbed. The subtitles don't help explain anything.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:57 PM  
Dave falls asleep partway through, half finished takeout on his lap. Full gravity Kind of takes it out of him.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:57 PM  
b a by  
Dave likely has join and muscle issues, at least psychosomatic  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:58 PM  
Yeah  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:58 PM  
He's not ready for the way Karkat just. Quietly slips into his life.  
And honestly, most of the time Karkat's not even thinking about it.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 9:02 PM  
It's, nice. They even figure out a way to make their adjoining wall reflect the interior of the other apartment. It makes Dave feels safe, familiar. He knows he can go see Karkat if he needs to, but a lot of the time he's content to watch  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 9:04 PM  
He starts experimenting with the settings in his own. The lowgrav stays, for his physical reasons, but he likes the neutral pallet Karkat sets his walls to. Even his and Dirk's old home cabin didn't have all exposed metal walls. And Karkat's right, the bright setting on the lights does drive up the bill if you're not careful..  
Karkat is smaller then Dave, and seems to order some clothing sizes too big...  
Well, waste not, want not, right?  
He hopes Dace likes sweaters..  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 9:07 PM  
Dave loves the sweaters. They're big and warm and smell nice.   
(Dave is chronically cold because he's so thin)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 9:09 PM  
He's curious about Alternia, and trolls. He learned about them in the small amount of time he spent in school on the ship, but didn't live in a very troll-populated area on the planet after he was rescued. 

There's a bad week where Karkat's molting and he doesn't talk to Dave much.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 9:12 PM  
Dave has gotten used to having someone around, and having Karkat be sequestered in his room trips his anxiety  
12 archived pages so far  
Dave slips back into older habits  
not eating a whole lot, insomnia  
it's only about a week and a half total, but Karkat and the occasional message from Rose and Roxy have become his entire social life.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 10:14 PM  
Karkat emerges and sees Dave, on the floor, curled up and crying.  
Or just, numb  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 10:14 PM  
I think Dave spends a lot of his days pretty numb  
(I think the apartent would be a lot worse if Hal wasn't there helping automate some systems, tbh)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 10:15 PM  
(ye. Hal makes sure he eats and sleeps and bathes regularly)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 10:16 PM  
Karkat is pretty tired himself, but Hal lets him in to help reassure Dave he's alright  
This time it's Karkat who can't let Dave touch him too much - new skin is a bit sensitive still  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 10:19 PM  
Which isn't that hard. Dave is still very touch averse  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 10:20 PM  
"I didn't - know trolls had to do that for so long," Dave admits when Karkat tells him what was up. "Thought you were sick.."  
(Oh, yeah, Dave's probably more then a germophobe)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 10:23 PM  
(why do you think he has his house sterilized?)

"I'm fine, Dave, it's completely natural. I'd tell you if I was sick."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 10:27 PM  
Karkat stays with Dave for the afternoon and ends up falling asleep in his small chair. He wakes up to something making noises in the little kitchen area. The small window shows its night outside. He smells something familiar. 

"Uh, sorry, if I woke you up. Um. I got that stuff you like - the bug tea you're drinking a lot." Dave offers him a cup of something hot, off-white and steaming. "I got some a couple weeks ago because you're over sometimes. And I wanted you to have. Something here, if. You wanted it."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 10:29 PM  
Karkat is touched, and he accepts the mug, cradling it to catch it's warmth. Dave keeps his apartment quite cold.

"Thank you. I appreciate that."

I think after the moult is when Dave starts to tell Karkat what happened.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 10:31 PM  
It comes out in bits and pieces over the months. Usually when Karkat gets to talking about his own wigglerhood and life.  
He supposes, with that one feed video he managed to see, he's seen the worst. He..isn't quite prepared for what Dave tells him though.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 10:38 PM  
The ship housed 1413 people. It was very large and being all alone meant he wandered. There were a lot of times he found the remains of a crew member behind glass. 

Both his parents had died in the outbreak. They were medical officers, and because of that they were some of the first. Dave admits he can't remember their faces.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 10:46 PM  
Dave hadn't been keeping up with the research on the virus - he hadn't thought to when he was younger, and by the time he was older, he was too anxious to go looking into it. He didn't want to think about more people dead, in that horrible way. 

It started when he was young, so that meant that for the majority of the time on the ship..Dirk and Hal and the service bots were his world. He describes the experience as if he were just describing anyone else's experience lving in a house with a regular family, playing ball with friends. Like he's not aware of how..well. Objectively awful it comes off. 

Karkat is hesitant to ask about Jake. The other half of the celebrity duo.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 10:57 PM  
When the subject eventually comes up its the first time he's seen Dave truly angry  
"He kidnapped me. Stole me in the middle of the night. I didn't even get to say goodbye."  
His hands shake as he talks about it  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 11:11 PM  
Jake woke him up in the middle of the night, touching his shoulder had been enough for him to sit bolt upright, wide awake. He'd told Dave that they had to leave, now. He didn't even have time to gather his possessions. Jake had just grabbed him and headed for the docking bay. Dave had screamed, kicked and thrashed and yelled for Hal and his brother.  
It hadn't done anything  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:14 PM  
Jake had probably snuck his way onto the bridge and disabled Hal's autopilot functions, thus making it so the ai couldn't close doors when he saw Jake running off with Dave. 

Jake..feels like a complicated character in this au. He's not really a bad guy, as he did have everyone's best interests at heart, but his actions left Dave without any kind of closure. Karkat is angry alongside Dave, for the most part, but there is a part of him that wonders how much Jake is really to blame.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 11:18 PM  
Yeah. I intended him to come off as someone who did the wrong thing for the right reasons  
This dovetails into Dave explaining why he makes the paper stars. When he was small, right after the outbreak, Dirk had taught him how to make them. He'd told Dave that when he felt sad and alone, he should make a star, and remember that there's someone who loves him trying very hard to get back to him.  
His little room on the Timaeus was full of them. Hal had helped him put them in jars and string them into garlands so that they wouldn't get crushed.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:23 PM  
When Dave had been taken, and Dirk hacked his way out of quarantine (because JAKE MADE IT SO HAL COULDN'T OPEN THE DOORS EITHER) he found their room, and just. Sat. With all the colorful stars around him.  
(also, thats the name of this au, btw)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 11:24 PM  
(what is?)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:24 PM  
(Paper Stars)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 11:24 PM  
(:sob:)  
Karkat asks if it would be okay to hug Dave.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:26 PM  
Dave fidgets for a minute, and then nods.   
It's not a long hug, or a very firm one, but Dave rests his head on Karkat's shoulder. The troll is very warm.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 11:27 PM  
It's nice. But touching another person for too long makes his skin crawl, so he has to pull away  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:30 PM  
(this makes me think Dave's touch aversion and germophobia might accidentally trip over Karkat's self-loathing tendencies bc Dave goes to wash his hands after touching people much and its Kakat 'mutant filth' Vantas' even if the empire is modern and progressive)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 11:31 PM  
(it might. Dave tries to explain that isn't the case but it's very hard)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:32 PM  
(Karkat doesn't take it too hard anyway. He knows Dave doesn't think of him like that.)  
Getting Dave out of the house once and a while is..difficult.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 11:33 PM  
He has to wear UV blocking clothes, and the gravity means he gets fatigued quickly. But it's worth it.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:36 PM  
Karkat helps him shop for better food then the stuff Dave had been eating. Set up grocery delivery as well. 

Dave doesn't work, can't work, I don't think, but Rose and Roxy and some government assistance of some form help.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 11:38 PM  
Technically Dave is living off the massive settlement the government had to pay for the Timaeus disaster. The reparations Could only be paid to him, as the only survivor. He's quite rich, he just doesn't use it or care.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:39 PM  
ooh, better  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 11:39 PM  
I want Karkat to find a log from Dirk  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:42 PM  
They might be hanging out one evening and Dave goes to bed early. Karkat's comfortable enough in Dave's place to stick around for a bit before going to his own, and decides to pester some of his friends using Dave's computer. In the process, he might misclick, and open something. 

Or hell, he might get into a conversation with Hal about Dave, and the ai decides to show Karkat one.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 11:47 PM  
It's one from before Dave stopped sending videos. Karkat gets the impression that Dirk was a very kind person, but also exceedingly lonely. He talks to Dave about school, and how other kids can be pretty nasty, apparently the subject of the video Dave sent him. He tells Dave that it's okay to be upset, but he shouldn't try to hurt those people back. 

He signs off with this.

"You're my little north star, Dave. I'm lost without you." A pause. "See you soon."  
Karkat... Doesn't know what to say.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 11:55 PM  
He feels like he wants to cry, and maybe lets a tear slip or two. He also notes Hal didn't stop him, which he thinks is odd. He'd figure the ai would want to preserve Dave's privacy a bit more.  
It was..nice, though. To 'meet' Dirk.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 11:57 PM  
Hal pings him.

I feel that you needed to know what he was like, in order to understand how losing him affected Dave."  
"How- how did he die?" Karkat asks  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:00 AM  
He killed himself. 

Karkat blinks. "..He..what?"  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:03 AM  
He committed medically assisted suicide, to avoid death via rapid temperature drop and depressurization

Hal states this with Absolutely no emotion.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:05 AM  
Karkat is trying to absorb the information. Yes, he understands it, perfectly well. He supposes he's trying to wrap hiss head around it all. 

"..Are you alright, Hal?" He asks at length. He's never really been on a ship that had need for such an advanced ai, so he's. Not sure how events like this would actually affect something like Hal.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:06 AM  
...

The AI is silent, and Karkat is about to go when he responds.

No. I suppose I'm not.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:10 AM  
While I do not honestly think I have what organic beings would categorize as emotions, I do have..very advanced protocols and programming specifically tailored to pay attention to the passengers and crew of my vessel. I and others like me have been called the 'spirit' of the ship, as I had direct access to the pilot functions, biome and habitation settings, was in every cabin's computers and was able to be reached and communicated with all members at any time, for anything I could plausibly control for them. They. 

They were my people. They were my ship.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:13 AM  
"and you couldn't protect them."

No. I couldn't. All I could do was watch them die.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:15 AM  
"..Well. You're here now. With Dave." 

..  
Yes. I suppose I am.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:16 AM  
(Man that got dark)

"You do a good job. Keeping him safe."

...thank you, Karkat. I appreciate the sentiment  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:17 AM  
(this au was dark to begin with, but yeah HAL DESERVES A HUG TOO)  
(considering before he was able to hitch himself into the messages Dave found and collected, he was..alone. In the ship.)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:20 AM  
(he had to watch as his whole world shut down. I think he thought he was going to die until he found the requisition request and put this iteration of himself there. It is a copy, not the original Hal  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:22 AM  
(Yeah, I figured something like that. The tech on normal computers and in the apartment is ok, but nowhere near the capacity and computing process of what Hal1 needed to function. He basically hitched, hollowed out what meager fetch ai was already in the place, and put his own DRASTICALLY paired down and altered system in)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:23 AM  
(ye. He keeps reaching for functions he doesn't have anymore)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:25 AM  
(He knows there's a dormant version of himself still out there. 'Sleeping' in the ship's black box, but never to be recovered because the people who were sent took what they needed to see what had happened, and left the rest for derelict and biohazard.)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:26 AM  
(that makes me wonder if Dirk's body was recovered)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:27 AM  
(Maybe. But, I also doubt the recovery teams were allowed to go so far in.)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:28 AM  
(i think it would be almost worse for Dave if it was)  
(his older brother would be physically younger than him, perfectly preserved because of the lack of air. Like he could open his eyes and wake up at any moment)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:32 AM  
(Not to mention, well. Dave had gotten a very pretty plaque, and a service for his brother, just like anyone else who had lost family to the Timaeus virus, but.

Dirk  
would have been taken to see what made him immune.)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:33 AM  
(Dave got a moment with the body. To say goodbye. He sat on the floor next to the table and stared into nothing until they took it away)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:35 AM  
Karkat tries to be there for him.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:37 AM  
They develop a system for comfort. If Dave needs it he and Karkat will sit back to back, pressed together.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:39 AM  
They keep the lights low, and the window open. They keep the air on, and the walls soft greens and blues. Dave wears sweaters Karkat gets for him, and that his sister knits. 

Dave teaches Karkat how to make the stars. Just like his brother taught him.  
(watch this fuckin g au make me actually cry)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:41 AM  
(ha you should have seen me last night. I talk out scenes when I'm imagining them sometimes and Dirk's last log entry had me legitimately sobbing.)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:42 AM  
oof  
They never kiss - Dave can't. They don't hug, or cuddle, but that's fine. They keep the wall translucent, when Dave is alright with it, and he watches Karkat's movies, and let the troll explain them, and tries his food, and lets Karkat cook for him. Dave keeps the 'bug tea' he forgets the name of to annoy Karkat a little bit in his pantry, and makes sure Karkat's keeping himself well.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:46 AM  
It's a life worth getting out of bed for. 

I think one day he stops Making the stars.  
Karkat asks why, and he kind of looks at him funny. 

"I'm not... Lonely, anymore."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:48 AM  
(ch r ist)  
Dave thinks Dirk would be proud of him. For finding his own north star.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:51 AM  
Dave records one last video. He explains all of this, what it means, how it helped him. He feels like Maybe, somehow, his brother will see it, and know.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:52 AM  
Yeah.


	8. For Want of the Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prospit and Derse were once one great kingdom under the sky. Peaceful, prosperous under their gods. 
> 
> Until Prospit's love of the light consumed them, and in turn, they consumed the Sun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very fairytale-ish, this one. Dirkri, but there's also some Dirkjake in there, for backstory. A note, the Prospitians aren't...bad. They've just bound themselves in human form for too long and it's sickened them. They've forgotten the scope of things.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
I have,,,, an au idea  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
oh yes?  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Really it's an image  
I have this image of Dirk, strung up in this kind of inner sanctum in a temple with a mosaic of the sun behind his head  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Is there any natural light there?  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
I think there's a skylight  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
may I add to the image?  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
OFC my dude hit me  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
The mosaic is old, and chipping  
there are people milling about on the ground level - the temple and sanctum is huge  
because so is Dirk  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
I like this idea but I have this other idea that it's a prospit/Derse scenario and prospit stole the sun  
You may finish yours  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
His skin is like marble, the air in the sunlight shimmers like glass shards - because they are. a dead body lies below him, death by a thousand tiny cuts, unknowing until the sun hit the shards and lit up the area surrounding the untouchable being uncovered after eons of sleep  
and he still sleeps, but they can see his stone chest begin to rise and fal in breath  
ok, done  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
I love that  
I just, Really Like the idea of a stolen god  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
me too  
elaborate?  
hell, maybe we could combine them  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Well my idea was sort of like, Derse is eternally night and Prospit is eternally day and they did this by kidnapping Dirk, who served as Derse's light. 

Hell maybe it should be Rose they kidnapped  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
It might be a thing they pass down - the Light, or the Eclipse.  
Rose is set to receive it from Dirk, who will abdicate  
also, strilondes with all-black eyes?  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Yesss  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
I feel like this is going to recycle some aesthetics from the stolen prince au  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Yeah probably  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
just   
more overt magic  
But ok, so  
Prospit and Derse used to be one kingdom, Skaia, which was still its own unknowable entity ruling all, and the gods ruled mankind  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Yeye  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
ok   
Prospit got greedy with their want of light, and made it so mankind would sleep then, and ignore the strilondes beautiful midnight tapestry in silver, and in revenge, Derse created the trolls, a race shunning the sun  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
I love this little bit of lore  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
I feel like its part of the start of the divide  
playing games with each other  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Tricks and traps and lies that drive a wedge between the two groups  
Oooh ohh idea!  
Dirk is the eldest son of the sky, and therefore he is the sun. Roxy is the dark Rose is the moon, and Dave is the Stars. 

They say the prince of prospit (Jake) seduced the sun from his lace in the sky and tricked him into human shape. As the god slept, the prince bound him in rope. The rope burned and the Sun rose in the morning. He tried again the next night, with chains of silver, but the metal melted and again, the sun rose. Finally, the prince went to his mother, who gave him a silken cord woven from the Magic of the earth itself. When the prince Bound the sun with this cord, he could not move, and the sun stayed in its place, above Prospits highest tower.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
YE S  
Dirk sleeps on, and Prospit forever revels in his light  
(so, in this, only the strilondes are gods)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(I think the Prospitans are also gods, but the reincarnation kind, as they are tied to earthly things)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(I think they admire the Sky for their everlasting nature, but also pity them. They do not know new, have never known youth only because they had known old age before that.)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Yeye  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
The three grow anxious after so many missed settings, though. Roxy's cloak wavers, Rose finds her Sight blinded in the everglow of silver and Dave seeks and seeks and sorts all his glittering little lights, but never finds Their light  
thy never suspected.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Derse languishes in darkness, only trolls and the hardiest of humans can survive it's barren an cold spil  
Soil  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
People in Prospit begin to question why Derse even exists - if one is good enough, no sense in letting the other sit there like a dead branch  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(mmmm my brain says this is a Dirkkri au again)  
And the war begins  
It has been fought for centuries, and never won or lost  
The Prospitans are afraid of the dark, and few expansions lead to permanent settlement. Meanwhile the Dersites cannot handle the brilliance of prospits light, and therefore cannot expand outside their bordera  
(hey. Hey. The temple they keep Dirk in is deep underground, with many stories of glass floors  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Over the eons, Prospit and Derse have changed. Derse, while still barren for the mort part, is now overcome with more then their god's (who most but the oldest of the trolls say don't actually exist) sorrow. The story say, in their rage, the Darkness and the Moon thought up a pantheon of unknowable entities to scour the edges of all consciousness in their land, to find any trace of their missing Sun, and in their haste, the creatures make one go mad)  
(if the glass is also mirrors, then it would be impossible to tell where you were)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(oooo hell yeah)  
The high priesthood of Prospit live in its tallest tower, tending to their god-king and his siblings, and guarding their most precious treasure. Deep below the earth, far from the sky and the prying eyes of his siblings, the sun sleeps. He looks, simply, like a human, but his skin glows softly gold, and to be in his presence makes even the most devout turn their eyes away. He is precious, cared for, but in the same way an artefact of great value is cared for. He is cleaned and given a brew of strong sleeping potion to ensure that his mortal shell never wakes.  
(also the image has changed slightly, he's laying on a stone altar)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(Yeah, I pictured that, too. I also imagine they have to keep him as far away from the sun as possible - Jake's mother (Jade) made sure to tell him that.)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(but he can't be truly below ground or the sun will go out, hence the tower of glass)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(this is also very far down the road, but the first hints the strilondes get of what Prospit did, is John catching a star Dave lets slip with the same method Jake used to catch Dirk. The first time they see anything like it done)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(yesss. Also can I make this Dirkkri with Kankri as the chosen one to rescue the sun?)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(it's a furious little thing, John's star. All hot iron and claws and wings of solar flares)  
(yeS!)  
No idea how he's gonna fit in  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(is the star Karkat)  
I have an inkling of an idea for how Kankri fits  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(actually I had intended for the star to be Davesprite, but Karkat works a little better)  
Share pls  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(I like davesprite as the star better)

Kankri was always a devout person. He joined the clergy of Derse at an extremely young age. But he never really Thought the gods were real, not in any way that mattered. 

That changes on his 20th birthday. He has a dream. He is standing in the night sky, the only sky he's ever known, surrounded by the dark and the stars. The moon hangs low over head, full as a silver coin. And then he blinks. 

Three figures stand before him, a tall, dark skinned man with freckles that are points of shining silver light, a figure in a shimmering dark cloak, and a woman, round faced and exuding a pale, cold light. She speaks to him, her voice soft.

We have searched for many years for our missing sibling, and now we have found them. Travel East, to the tower of glass, and journey far below the earth. Break the cords that bind the sun and end the eternal night

She points, and he turns to look behind him. Far in the distance shines a golden light, the warmest and most beautiful he's ever seen.

He wakes up.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(god this is seriously so goo d)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(is this one going in the Archives)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(If you want it to)  
(it looks to be gearing up for quite the story)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(let's see where it goes)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri wakes in a harsh jerk. For an earthshattering moment, he doesn't feel quite right in his own skin. Like it's a set of clothing he's not broken in yet, despite looking just like his old one, put there in a haste by something interested in seeing him on his way as fast as possible. 

It doesn't matter to him, there are words he can't recall in a voice he can no longer hear stuffing his head full of memories that were never his, distant as the light of a new moon seeping away as the black of seep retreats. He staggers upright, out of bed, almost concussing himself on his tiny bedside table to get to - the window, the sky, he needs to see the Sky-

It is. Dark. Something isn't right. Something he can't describe. There are no stars. There is no moon. He looks - looks where a hand like a beam of light pointed him, an arrow, a spear that drags his eyes down, to a horizon he's never contemplated and always thought to disappear into the nothingness that cradled that stars

but it no longer does.

There, like a candle to a page, blazes under the world.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
The priesthood is tentative to let him go, worried that he will not return. But they relent eventually, under threat that the gods will be angered otherwise. Before he leaves, they gift him with a precious artefact. A chain of pure dark, it's links forged by the night sky itself. It will allow him to walk in the sunlight without burning.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri takes it, and like his feet are moving without his real say so, he leaves. 

The deserts and wastes of Derse are vast and lonely. The dark sky is endless, and without the gods' flock of stars to comfort and the moon's evergaze, Kankri fancies he can feel the creatures that nip at the heels of the Dark now curling in the footprints he leaves in the dust. He never looks back though. He never pauses his stride. 

As he walks, the landscape changes. Outcroppings of steel and stone where his people find precious things from ages past, buried in the sands, become petrified forests, lakes of glass where the sand had burned so hot it formed shimmering pools, now reflecting the nothingness in the sky above. The eyes of the Dark, following him, he expects. 

His foot lands on something, then, after how many days of walking, endless walking, with a strength that defied mortality. Something odd.

He looks down. 

A tuft of..hair? 

No. Plant. Dead, dry, crushed to more dust under his foot, but. Once alive, and growing. 

The sky is retreating. It's the only way he can describe it. And filling with something new.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
He comes to the edge of the dark, the sky above pink and red in a way that reminds him of his own blood. It's, disconcerting to someone who has never seen a sunrise. He continues on. The space over his head turns from red, to orange, to a bright, powdery blue, the dark curtain of the sky Fading away. He is beyond Derse's borders now.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(I get hollowknight vibes from derse, jsyk)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(DEAR LORD SAME?)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(HFf)  
Kankri passes a distant hill, cresting the top of the ridge, where the rosy-gold l..light seems to be converging, coming to form a banner across the sky in cerulean blues, and he cannot bear to look for seconds at a time. 

He blinks as his eyes meet with the gaze of something far more powerful then his dear Silver Eye. He feels the last of the strength he was lent slip away with the all-encompassing amber gold Light, no power left for it to give him. 

The sun shines out, a beacon, and below him, on the tall, craggy peaks a mile up from it all, Kankri sees the carpet of greens and golds and a rainbow of life littering the valley ahead of him like all the scraps of cloth and chitin and precious, flowering fungi in the dark when in fertile years it would light up n the caverns. He cannot move, but he dares not draw back.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
It is there he's found by a Prospitan border patrol. They think that the troll is dead at first, struck down by the light of the eternal sun. But they find he is, in fact, still breathing, though his eyes are closed in a sudden and all encompassing sleep, his cheeks stained with the tracks of crimson tears.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
This is. Quite a find for them. Most trolls they ever find are just beyond the border, in the middling plains. Wandering and mad and spouting about the horrors their dead gods let off the leash, or just dead. Of starvation or dehydration or an animal attack, or their own mind giving way to the Light. 

No one's ever just. Found a live, pretty healthy troll before. 

Suffice to say, they lock him up nice and tight. The Eternal would likely want to know about this, someone mentions, and someone else hushes them. What would the Guardians of the Light want to know about one loopy troll found catatonic at the border?  
(there we go)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Someone else pipes up that if the thing wakes up, it means that the Dersites found a way to walk in the light, and that they may have be advancing to attack the valley. 

Needless to say that gets their attention.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(Horrorterrors: GHSHDGFHDFJHFKHKHDKHKFGJSGASG  
Prospit: AAA GET YOUR FYCKING DOG, BITCH   
Derse: it don't bite   
Prospit: YES IT DO, GET-)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(pffft)  
Kankri wakes up three "days" later  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Someone...decides they better clear the troll of anything 'weird' on their person  
anything not confirmed to be clothing  
whuch  
they might just switch out with their own  
just in case  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(days are denoted by the sun dimming, which happens when Dirk is drugged)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
yeee  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
They can't remove the chain around his neck though  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(I'd like to say that weird celestial things happen when he's aware enough to dream)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(eclipses, flares, stars appearing in the sky)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(also, no offense Prospit, but if Dirk wakes the wrong way, everything in that valley getting fried)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(uh, yeah)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri wakes when they try to remove it. He goes for the nearest guard, angry and frightened and sure that if they did find a way to take it off, he'sd actually die  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
They bind his hands, but leave the chain. 

It's a long way back to the capital.  
Kankri sleeps when it's brightest, and every time he dreams of that light, getting closer. He hears a voice, faint and soft, calling for him  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(this makes me remember dave's theme color is red, so when they were thinking up kankri dave just comes rushing in like 'that one' and they were like 'uh-' and dave just keeps pointing insistent like 'THAT ON E')  
The voice is. Well. 

Alright so..Kankri never had a family. Ever. The cloister of jadebloods who raised him said they..found him, one Waning, out in the vast, cooing and shrieking up a storm. They supposed he could have wandered through a crack and escaped the caverns, but, no one ever claimed him. 

And yet. 

Kankri hears the voice and thinks father, but not. Not his father. It's like...something bigger then that. Older then the concept of family. There is only existing, and not existing, and this voice remembers that. 

Kankri usually wakes to the guards pulling him back down from where he was sleepwalking.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
He can't understand them, or explain why he's here, and he's not keen to. The rare times he sleeps during a dim, he has nightmares, that voice turning from soft and gentle to pained and fearful cries. Whoever it belongs to, they are suffering when the sun goes dark.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri feels like he's in a terrordream, even when waking. The tired, muted horror in the voice when he sleeps in a dim, and numbness he can feel creeping in the edges of the calmer times, and the landscape where he can hardly see the sky from the - the plants that grow as tall as cavern ceilings, blotting out the light in amber dapples on the fronds of the other, smaller plants around him. There is no vast or wastes out here, and Kankri feels like he can't breath for all the crowded air under the 'trees'. 

Eventually though, they start to thin, if only to give way to even more alien sights. 

Prospit.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
The city hurts his eyes, all white and gold and shining so brightly it nearly matches the Sun above it. In its center is a great spire, made of gold and glass. Is this where he was meant to go?  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(so, I migt be going to bed here soon, but jsyk, I got a flash of the ending scene)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(shaaare)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(well, climax anyway)  
(it involves Kankri using some kind of magic whatever the hell to punch down through all the layers of the glass tower, getting pretty far, but on the last few something, probably one of the godkids, stops him, and he has to fight to break each layer, and at the final one, it's Jake himself, reared up in full godly glory the likes of which he hasn't been since he tied those knots Kankri is ripping apart one by one.)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(that is amazing I love it, it is also sort of fits nicely with the scene I had in mind. Kankri will have to neutralize Jake though)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(he expects angry and godly fury. He doesn't expect quiet tears and a plea.)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(Jake is probably in love with Dirk in some twisted way)

(also if you would like to see a sneak peek, the idea I have is Kankri coming to the chamber Dirk is held in, walking up to the altar, and gently untying the cords. He sits with Dirk as he slowly wakes up.)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Hhh sweet)  
(my version was that the tower itself was the cords, metaphoricly, gold (earth) and glass (sand) and fire (to make the glass) and the sky and light o be yhe air.. idk)  
But I like yours better  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(also, as a reward the gods ask Kankri for his hearts desire, so they can grant it to him. Kankri's only wish is to spend eternity alongside Dirk. So they oblige, and Kankri becomes the god of Dawn)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
More intimate  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(ye they are physical cords in my brain)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
!!WELL THE N hh)  
(kankri is up for some weird soul dreams soon)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(he is)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(bc it turns out even unconscious, Dirk is in the heads of those who were..kinda..specifically made to hear him..)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(He knows Kankri is sent to save him, and he's at first just grateful, but I think the longer Kankri spends in the city, the more Dirk is present in his dreams)  
Getting back on topic  
Or rather back on timeline  
Kankri is presented to Queen Jade and the Clergy that noon, and they are suprised to say the least. Trolls never survive this far into the kingdom.  
They've never even seen a troll  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(lol, we're like bugs, we want the soft, good stuff first)   
Probably not. They know..of trolls. 

I think we should explain the godrulers perspective - they're still gods, but their power is so spread out over the natural world that keeping their consciousnesses in these tiny, concentrated forms for so long has made them ultimately weaker then their dark bretheren. Thus, while they have vague memories of a race of shadowdwelling beings, trolls are a current mystery to them.  
Jade does take note of that necklace of his, though  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
She asks where he got it and he lies, saying it's an old thing, a gift from a great aunt.  
Unable to Discover anything further, they put him in a cell at the top of the tower.  
It's designed to be a torturous prison, too bright to sleep in, but Kankri finds it quite comfortable  
He dreams of the voice again. Except this time, it has a face to go with it.

In his dream, a young man sits before him. He's beautiful, all gold and shining brightness. But he doesn't hurt to look upon, like Prospits light does. He looks at Kankri with a tired resignation.

Hello. Are you the one my sister sent?

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri is. Waiting. He's no good at being patient of course, but he can tell neither is the four godrulers. Hell have to just enjoy the..view. And what a view. The green of the forest - he's not sure where he got that word, but that's what it is - the white of passing clouds in the vast, endless blue, bluer than any ceruleans blood. The overtaking awe of the light. 

When the Light dims, so too does Kankri's wakefulness. As the skys bleed vermillion and amber and indigo, he lays down

and wishes he could get up again. 

He cannot, some force keeping him lying on his side as the man talks to him, voice a great, distant hum like the roaring of a million fires, but soft as a rat of light through a dewdrop. 

I. Am I? Kankri thinks, or..says? It seems there is little difference, here. You have family? He asks, curious.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
I do. You would call them The Moon, the Dark and the Stars. I have not seen them in a very, very long time.  
The man's expression turns to one of sadness. He shakes his head. 

No, I have been sleeping here. Alone.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(alrivty, that's it for me..nogjty!)  
(uril tomorrow)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(g'night)  
(also before we go I have to say I want to include one of Kankri's nightmares when he's close to Dirk)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(ok)  
(makes sense)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Murin  
I had an idea last night where as Kankri's connection to Dirk grows, he can start to see where Dirk is, which means he can watch Dirk's captors.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Mornjn  
Also good idea  
Kankri gets different perspectives. Sometimes it's in third person, where he's watching himself be in the room, most times its first person.  
One time it was first person...but he wasnt in his own body  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(was he in Dirk's)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
The attendants faces were filled with an unnameable fear when they saw the Sleeping God's eyes open, for one moment. Kankri could see up...and up and up into the endless tower. A grain of light at the very top, unreachable. 

It was only for seconds, until he's overwhelmed with the weight of even a slumbering gods mind, but it happened.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
The dim is twice as long that day  
I imagine he sees Jake through Dirk's perspective once.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
The prince dressed all in green is achingly handsome, as he sits next to Dirk's prone body on the altar. He runs his hands over Dirk's face, smiling. He can't explain the sick Feeling that rolls through him  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
The Prospit gods look   
different then Kankri's recollection of his own Dark Ones. 

(He suspects, that if he were to look with Dirk's mind and body at that moment, he would have gone as mad as people who see the lost seeking agents of Derse go.)

Jake is..

light. But it's a different kind. Less the light of the sun and more the light every being has inside themselves, the thing that keeps dreams in the mind and warmth in the heart. A being of wings and white fire and all the knowledge of what could be.  
As it stands, Jake is not that, at current  
He's..something small, and constrained, by his own will.  
And it's making him ill.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(psst if we Archive this can we call it For want of the Sun?)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(we can)  
(and I should probably do that now)  
Jake talks to Dirk  
it's..well. It would be pleasant conversation between two friends, or lovers in the tender moments when the Dim comes (sometimes Jake feeds Dirk the drugs himself) if no for the fact that the cord is wrapped all about, binding like roots the god to his stone bed and into the floor.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(Jake is the god of Plants as his earthly connection. Plants do love the sun)

He's there once as Jake administers the sleeping drugs. He can see the way Dirk's eyes flutter, hear his tiny moans of protest. His body wants so badly to wake up. But Jake pours the medicine- no, the poison onto his tongue and Dirk slips under again.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri can see the cord shift, under Jake's gaze. Tightening ever so much, back to its contriction in the small bit it had been slacking, every day. It's black, but not black like his sky - black like the sick that invades the life god's mind. 

The strokes tender fingers over Dirk's eyes, arranges his hair just so. Kankri..feels oddly envious of the act, as well as guilty for wanting such a thing at all. He's no god, just a lone, little off-color troll. 

Speaking of.. 

"..Beloved...I have news that brings fear to my heart..and I wish to confide."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Dirk cannot answer him, of course he can't. But that doesn't stop Jake from continuing on.  
Kankri feels the sun gods presence, as restricted as it is, pull tight, wrapping around him like a cloak. Jake might as well be talking to the stone he's laying on.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Jake talks about the days, seemingly unrelated things. Scattered in are pauses where, if Dirk were awake, he might have been part of the conversation. As it stands, Jake simply..rambles. Then he begins speaking of the Dim, recently. How it seemed..to go on. The people were frightened. Jake was frightened. "You cannot go away, darling..you cannot leave us!"

Kankri is a subject that makes Jake's fingers twitch, and for a moment, he fancies he can see something circle around Jake's fingers, something powerful and destructive, but it's gone as soon as it came. Jake tells Dirk...as much as he loves his wonderful creations..he cannot allow it to spoil things.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Dirks presence tenses around Kankri, protective and frightened. On the altar, his fingers twitch and his brows furrow before smoothing back over in sleep. Jake sighs and leans down, kissing the spot between Dirk's eyebrows. 

Shhh, love. It's alright. I'm just keeping you safe.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
I imagine the other three want to interrogate Kankri..a little more intimately then simply asking him questions. 

And Jake would love to have that necklace.  
oh, what if the necklace would assist in keeping Dirk down indefinitely - the cord frays, and needs Jake's constant attention - the necklace of Roxy's would inadvertently be the chain to finally keep him.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Omg yessss  
Bonus, Kankri doesn't necessarily need it to survive in the sun (made to be his saviour, after all)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
I'm torn between the Prospit gods not knowing about the wasteland that Derse has become, or just not caring  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
I don't think they care tbj  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
They might legitimately think the dark gods are dead, and are like 'well, nothing to be done about it, I guess  
yeah  
I think Kankri very much tries to keep his memories of dirk's siblings to himself  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Yeah  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
They're weak - they're tired, they want Dirk back so they can rest. 

The Prospit gods could very well be a threat to them, if they cared to be.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
The psychic attacks on Kankri's mind are hard to deal with, but it's all he can do as he tries to come up with a plan. 

The tipping point is when he falls asleep right before a dim.  
He's in the chamber where Dirk is kept, looking over him. He's just at the edge of conciousness, and though his body looks peaceful, his mind is racing, trying to fight off the addling effects of the drugs and wake before they can put him under again. He's almost there, almost free- 

There are footsteps coming towards him. Kankri can feel his blind panic, the way he's thrashing in his frozen, unresponsive form. The priest arrives with their bowl of poison and he sobs, silently begging for his freedom. They can't hear him.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
He cannot bear this any longer. It must stop. It must. The Prospitian gods have crippled themselves, deluded themselves into playing king and ruler, forgetting their own place in the cosmos. In the process, they harm. They've made themselves cruel. 

And Kankri cannot do nothing anymore. 

He wakes, suddenly, as violently as he had before, that very first time after being told of his quest. The light in the top of the tower is almost gone - he doesn't have much time. He must get out, he must get to Dirk, to Jake, to the alter and do something-

He curses and panics, pulling at the fucking chain about his neck, the dark coils slipping through his fingers like water. He'd fought to keep it, to keep it away from Dirk, he finds the gift hideous now, as much as he loves his gods, and he pulls it 

Off.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
He expects the light to burn, to be struck blind by the brilliance of it. Instead, things seem to come into focus. Lines get sharper, colours more saturated. He can ponder the implications of that later. Right now, he has a god to save.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
So, as much as want to write this long drawn out scene where he has to go through the floors, I also sort of want to say he fuckin astral projects into the room  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Hm  
I think that might be appropriate  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
that may also be becaue my mom wants me to cook pancakes  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
That's valid, this can wait until pancakes are made  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
My comprise on the astral projection thing is he has to fight his way through the floors regardless  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
I agree  
sorry, back now  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
It's fine, get that sustenance  
I actually think that astral projection happens because he can't get out of his cell  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri free of the necklace can actually somewhat access some of Dirk's power  
and yes, that was what I was going for  
I figured it would be...kinda silly and tonally off to ust have him magically go op and break out  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Yeah it kinda would be. So he projects. I think he makes it halfway down before he encounters, resistance  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
John and his pet star  
or just the star alone  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
I think just the star. He wears a collar of that some cord around his throat, and he's angry  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri knows the star doesn't attack out of malice, but he is a danger anyway. He is feral, without the rest of his flock and god to guide him, never having known the sky. 

He blocks the way, but..maybe..if he can break that collar..  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
He gets close enough to try, and the heat burns his hands. But the knot comes loose and the star chokes down his first free breath in centuries  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
It's inadvertently that Davesprite ends up helping Kankri. With his wings free, flaring with heat the likes of which could melt his own iron bones, he take off. In the process, he ends up smashing a few more floors for Kankri, who's almost there now.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
He encounters John next. The wind god is furious he's lost his pet, and makes to fight the troll  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri dislikes John greatly - not as much as Jake, but while there is something pitable in the earth deity, something Kankri can still feel Dirk ache in the loss o f what could have been, John is nothing like that. Trickery and nothing substantial. Air and breeze on a sunny day.  
The problem is that John knows Kankri's not 'real', and attempts to get to his body.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
I think he catches John using the cord he held the star with  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
"A new collar for a new pet," he says, winding it tight. Kankri can see the light in sky growing redder. He's running out of time.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
how fucked up Would it be if he killed the Prospitans mortal forms

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
fucked up, but at this point...they need i t  
its like the ultimate time out  
also fucked up: he strangles john with that cord  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
That's where I was going  
Of course that alerts his siblings  
Janes up next  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
@ seltz later: ok, so, dungeon crawl idea-  
Jane has a few more tricks up her sleeve then John did. She can see right into Kankri - knows his desires and thoughts and past.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
She can turn his fear against him. She might try to trick him into thinking he's too late  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
She shows him the sky, loo up she says - what is the point? The sun need be nowhere else. Think of all the people Kankri will be harming if he frees it.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
He almost believes her. He almost believes that there's nothing he can do. And then she goes for the chain that should be around his throat  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
It hurts to pull away, but its like the searing light of the sun, truth. She wants to obscure what is there? Then she is welcome to it. He grapples the chain from her, and twists it over her eyes. 

The 'chain' is in the end whatever he needs it to be. A cloth to blind, perhaps. 

Kankri kills her with her trident  
(mmnn..might have to rewrite that later or something..)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(I liked it)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(thenk)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Jade is a suprise. She doesn't fight Kankri, she is older and far wiser than her children. He's ready for a fight, no doubt, but she simply stands there.

I made a mistake, allowing Jake to keep the object of his affection. I know the suffering of Derse, and wish to see it ended. Go, little one. You have my blessing.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri hardly believes her. What if she is planning on getting him to Jake and then the pair ganging up on him? What if she plans to do something even more awful to Dirk once he's free? 

but she doesn't follow. Kankri watches her as he runs. Her form looks different as he passes layers of glass and mirror. His eyes cannot comprehend it, but he thinks she never encased herself in mortal form like her children. At least, she didn't cut bits of herself apart to do it. 

Down, down, the red glaring now. He can hear the chanting, see the glimmering lights. Cord is strung across the walls like vines, curling, anchoring.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
The sight makes his heart ache and his stomach curl.

The bottommost level of the tower is a maze of passages and hallways. It's there, in the twisting tunnels, he finds Jake.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
"You don't know what you're doing," the god says. He's empty handed, but for that shimmer in and out of existence of something powerful, and deadly, orbiting his fingers. "Why-" he chokes, "-do you hate us for wanting?"  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Because your wanting has hurt so many people. Because you keep a god you claim to love like a caged bird. He doesn't belong to you.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Jake is shaking his head, and Kankri watches as his body changes. Something once grand, but just like the cords of earth, fraying and hollow. HIS LOVE BELONGS TO ME - HE GAVE IT TO ME AND I WILL NOT HAVE THAT RIPPED FROM ME TOO  
they fight   
and Kankri is Losing  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
He's weak down here, his spectral body far from the light. It's all he can do to evade the furious God's strikes. He's close, he's so close. He just needs to get past Jake.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
He manages to snag Jake's arm with the black chain, yank him forward, but that also puts him in range of the glowing energy in the gods' hands.  
Jake lets loose.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(why do I want to flash back to the night Jake captured Dirk)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(because maybe some bullshit magic reason, when Kankri's astral body is destroyed Dirk's mind takes it and he's reliving a dream Dirk is having)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(that'll work)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Kankri is suddenly, somewhere else. A simple house made of wood and clay. Two figures are inside. The first is Dirk, soundly asleep in the small pallet bed. He's not bound, and his face is truly peaceful, not the enforced calm of his imprisonment. The other, Kankri can't quite make him out, but he's holding a long, woven cord. 

Kankri watches as the figure binds Dirk, looping and knotting the cord around him in a familiar pattern. Dirk shifts slightly, and the cord glows white. The figure sits with the bound god until the sun rises.

Dirk stirs. He tries to move, but the cords hold fast. He opens his eyes.

What...? Jake- what did you do?  
Exercise brb  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
kk  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
K I'm back  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
The figure doesn't move where it's perched on the bed. Kankri can feel the anxiety rising in him, in the quiet of the growing morning. Dirk pulls against his bonds, eyes burning and skin golden in the growing light. Kankri can see his eyes find a window, to the west, where the faintest hints of darkness were laying low in the sky, the last of the stars hiding themselves away and the moon finding new sky to see. Dirk's eyes plead, his voice the same. 

Jake leans over him, and cups his face, stilling him. What must be done, for us. It would break me so, my love, to seeyou gone one more night. So there will be no night.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
The sun weeps. 

Kankri wakes up in the cell, his hands burned, his body aching form the fight with Jake. He screams in frustration. He had been so close.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri notices, then, that the necklace is gone as well  
Jake  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
His heart sinks. If Jake has the chain, then he's won. There's nothing Kankri can do to stop him.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
But Jake does not  
And the tower is no longer the quiet lonesome place it was  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(I assume that everyone is panicking about the dead gods  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Jake is. too far gone to think much about his siblings  
Jade and him are fighting  
but also yes, the general populace is Freaking  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Kankri's cell is ungaurded, the door open, perhaps by magical means. 

It's easy to sneak down the tower in the tumult of the preisthoods panic.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Dirk is not laying down either. He's not awake, but his form in hunched on the alter, laying curled about himself, as much as the bonds will let him. His face is still slack, but as Kankri enters, he keeps violently switching back and forth between being himself, and being the sleeping god beset by nightmares.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Kankri's hands ache from the burns left by the star, but he forces himself to take the cord. He needs to find where it begins  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
The place is shaking around him. The walls are cracked, and with each tremor they grow weaker. Bits of glass falls from above, more then once he's protected Dirk's prone form with his own, the red of his blood in drips on the alter.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(I think Jake can sense the knots coming undone)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
(Jake is having a meltdown, and Jade is attempting to keep him from getting back in)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
When the past of the knots come loose, the cord is soaked with his blood. Dirk lays there, curled in on himself. It's at that point that Jake manages to get in. He sees Kankri, bloodied and exhausted, hunched over Dirk, trying to protect him from the rubble.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Jake is coming apart at the seams. He managed to kill Jade, but she fought more then valiantly. He comes for Kankri with fury in his eyes, form larger then man and lifting the troll up by his torn clothing, and brings out the black chain he managed to take from Jade. 

He is mine, my sun, my light. I would destroy a world for him.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Kankri can't fight. He hardly has the strength left to keep his head up. He waits for the killing blow. It never comes. He opens his eyes to see Jake's face, stricken. 

Stop. A voice behind Kankri says.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
The troll's head lolls back, and with the eye that isn't crusted over, he can see..

bright. 

The light at the very top of the tower has moved here, down into his place of shadows and half-light. 

Dirk is kneeling upright on his alter, the cords about him burning in his radience, steadily growing, and Kankri feels warm. A hand reaches out, as giant, more than, to Jake's and with fingers so gentle, he takes the battered little troll. Jake is limp and staring.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
You cannot hold me here any longer, Jake. It is time that night comes once again to prospit.

The sun stands in his full glory, and for a moment, nothing moves. Then, there is a sudden gust of wind and heat, and the giant figure is gone.  
Kankri wakes up at home, in his monetary. He thinks it was all a dream for a moment, and then pale, warm light peeks through his window.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
It's as beautiful as the first time he ever saw the sunrise. But this time, it's even better. 

Because he knows what it really means.   
-  
There are murmurs, then confused talking, then cries and screaming. His people have never seen the sun before.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Kankri can't leave his bed, still injured as he is, but he calls the head priest and asks him to send a message out to the people. The sun is frightening and new, but it will not kill them. He knows it's light won't harm them any longer.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
The priest, a harried looking blueblood, nods. Kankri had been devout since he had come here as a wiggler, and when the great blast of light had left him laying on a disk of glass on the sand of the wastes just outside the cloister, they knew something was up. He'd been patched up and given water, and they were waiting for his tale. 

As the room clears out, Kankri lying back to perhaps see if he could get some rest while his people adjusted (no offense to Dirk..but the troll'd had a bit of his fill of sunlight for a day or two..) someone speaks, causing Kankri to jump. 

"I'd apologize to them all, but sometimes the plunge is better then a slow, uncomfortable descent."

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
He blinks and looks towards the speaker.

"I don't understand, what do you mean?"  
The light is Casting dark shadows, and he cannot see the owner of the voice. But it is achingly familiar.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
"I don't mean to take my own comfort before their's, of course," the voice says, and Kankri is squinting to see it better. "but I find that after so long, I ached to see my kingdom in its full, again."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
"...Dirk?"

The figure steps out of the light of the window and he's visible. His golden eyes flash, and he smiles.

"Hello Kankri."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri trembles under the gaze, the voice. He recalls, everything, though it all seems like a distant dream now. Here Dirk is, man, god, everything his light touches. 

Kankri is struck by the slightly hysterical realization he was less afraid of Dirk when he was a forty foot tall being of light and fire then he is now, a tall human man with golden hair and eyes and whenhe turns just so the light from the window catches his skin illuminating unseen patterns like the rays of light across clouds..  
"..my lord." Kankri bows as best he is able to, sitting in bed and wrapped in bandages.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Dirk laughs softly. His voice is warm and comforting.

"There's no need for that. You saved me. I should be the one bowing to you."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri is slow to look up, and not without the hand that helps him lean back into the pillow. Dirk sits on the bed, and his confusion grows. So..he helped. He freed him..

"..but you are a god, I - I'm just. A troll, sir - my lord - uh." 

He looks down. "It was..your siblings who sent me. Who helped me." 

Kankri recalls then, something important, and anxiety slithers up his spine. "Jake! He - he's still-" but...Dirk is slowly shaking his head.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
"He won't be able to catch me again. I'll never set foot in Prospit's soil, and stay in the sky where I belong. But here," 

He takes Kankri's bandaged hand and kisses his knuckles gently. 

"Here I am safe to walk among my people."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
;-;  
(are we going to keep the thread with Kankri becoming a god too?)  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
(hell yeah)  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri can't keep the tears back anymore with the warth seeping into his skin - he has never felt someone as warm as himself before, so bright..

He holds Dirk hand as tight as he can, with both hands, and the god allows him his tears, murmuring and hushing them away. He falls asleep, and dreams of calm skies.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Time passes, and the initial terror of the people fades into a familiarity. Kankri heals, and goes back to his work as a monk. It is common to find him outside in the new grassy fields, talking with a tall man with golden hair. Rumours start to spread.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
After all, he was missing for a month or so, and he came back right as the sunlight returned. No one else seems to be able to find the golden haired human to talk to, either - almost like he doesn't exist to anyone but Kankri. 

One evening, as the sun is beginning to disappear below the distant mountain ridges, Kankri is seen walking from his quarters, to somewhere out in the grassy, still-empty wastes that haven't been reclaimed yet.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
He doesn't return with the rising or setting of the moon, and when the sun rises a search party is sent out. There's so sign of him

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
That's the first time someone else sees the gold haired man. He's walking in the fields, and there's a figure beside him, wrapped in layers of pink and orange silk.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
When the figure turns, and the dawn settles properly into early morning, the last thing of the soft figure is their eyes - brilliant ruby red, like dawn and dusk on the underbelly of clouds. 

Kankri is never seen again, but some swear they hear him in their dreams, or see the figure in the in-between times, and are reminded of him.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Many years later, a new God enters the pantheon of Derse. The knight of the Dawn. His legends tell how he freed the Sun from the depths of the earth, and now walks alongside him, protecting him from any that may halt his path.  
In Prospit, he's a demon, and associated with twilight  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
prospit salty  
The lands become more integrated though, as Derse rebuilds, and introduces Prospit to all the interesting things in the dark they never got to know

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri is adjusting to godhood  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
His conciousness is a lot bigger than it was. It's a lot to take in.  
I kinda wonder what that conversation was like  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Technically, the other three strilondes are the reason kankri exists at all  
He is inherently magical  
Dirk doesnt want to frightening him  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
I think They talk about it one evening. The sun is starting to set, and Dirk's mortal body is falling asleep and he just says,

"Kankri. Would you want to stay with me?"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri blinks. "For the night? I. Yes, that sounds nice." He's curious of course where they would 'stay', he's not sure how this all works- 

Dirk is shaking his head though.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
"Not like that, my love. I meant... A little more permanently. You are mortal, and I am not, but I cannot bear the thought of living without you."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri doesnt know what to say. 

A god, his god offering him..everything  
"..may I think about this?"  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Dirk leans in and gently kisses his cheek. It Tingles with heat.

"Of course. You know how to find me when you make your decision."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri meditates. He wonders what Dirk is dreaming about. 

The dawn draws closer. Kankri can see it, not far off, and it compells him to walk.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
He leaves his humble quarters and wanders out into the fields. It smells of grass and new growth, a scent he's learned to love over the years. The stars fade out about him and dawn light takes their place.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
He has no kin in Derse, or in Prospit. No lovers or quadrants or those who would find his empty bed or uneaten portions of the daily bread amiss. 

He has Dirk. Occadinally, though they are much farther then their sibling, theres the Stars and Moon and Dark, still there as they were when he first met them. He has himself. 

"Pleasant passing?" He asks, as always.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Dirk pulls him close and kisses him gently.

"Yes. Better that I am here now."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri hums, and they enjoy the morning for a while. The breeze picks up and sends small flower seeds through the air on their white tufts. A bird or two sound off their warnings or threats not to tresspass in each other's trees. There's the distant smell of cooking and stove fires, carried on the wind. In the great distance, the crags of mountains still lie, slowly softening under the grasses and new life from hard dessolate things into giants laying upon the earth. 

"Will I still have this?" Kankri asks.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
"if you want it. We are all able to take mortal shape, I find it pleasant enough." Dirk is watching the grass, his eyes narrowed. They both know that his proclivity towards human form is because of the centuries he slept as one.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Kankri takes in the knowledge. He must admit..he is and always has been insatiably curious. 

"Will it hurt?" He asks, voice barely a whisper as he leans into Dirk, perhaps to distract him from less then pleasant thoughts.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
Dirks arms are strong and warm Around him. He presses a burning kiss to the crown of his head, between the horns.

"No. It won't."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
Things are hazy after that.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
He remembers saying yes, and Dirk Laying him down in the grass, but after that it's a blur of warmth and light and Shadow and stars.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
It's a bit like unraveling a sweater, perhaps. The thread has not changed, the color, the length, and it will forever carry the knowledge of having been a garment, but now it is simply a lngth of yarn, free and beholding the breath of itself. Endless possibility. 

And slowly, Kankri is woven back together with careful, knowledgeable hands.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)05/18/2020  
When he wakes, he's. Somewhere else. Like the sky of his dreams, but more real. He sees the gods in their full glory. Dirk's smile is utterly blinding.

Hello, my love.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/18/2020  
There is theological discussion. Does the day need a champion to fight for him? One wonders. But he is there nonetheless, stalwart and a companion. 

Seeing the sun to sleep, and protecting it's rise. Always.


	9. Willowcane in the River

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dirk died years ago. The boy he died for is long gone, moved on with his life. 
> 
> Too bad Dirk can't say the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just call us the manic pixie angst machines because we got another one, lads. Ghost Dirk, having to relive the night he died each aniversary of the event, and Jake having to reconcile with the feelings he ran away from.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/13/2020

Sad pining self destructive Dirk

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/13/2020

hhh pining after whooo

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/13/2020

Jake

Jake, who left him years before

either that or Dirk's a ghost take your pick

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/13/2020

hh

ghost

It's an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere

Dirk knows he's the biggest thing to have happen in this town

but not by choice

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

and that was over ten years ago

He wonders if Bro is dead in jail yet

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

murdered?

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

Yea

maybe by actual accident, but it's not like a drunk who beats the shit out of his sons is gonna recognize when they

re not getting up until it's too late

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

Regardless. He's dead. And alone.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

Dave was taken away. Bro is..somewhere. In jail, maybe. Hopefully? 

Mmn. Dirk has a hard time holding on to those feelings of things like hope. Imagination. Even curiosity. All he can seem to remember and feel is the fear, hot and sharp as he and Jake were found at the riverside, the numbness of driving home, and the wave of black as the man tossed him inside and he hit the counter hard.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

The counter was replaced, but the spot where his head made contact is still stained.

He wants Jake. Wants his boy, who he loved enough to risk his father's wrath.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

A part of him wants the anger that comes with the sadness, when it gets close to The Day. Because with the anger comes power. Power enough to rip things from the walls, shatter lights and windows, pick whatever's not nailed down up and slam it about however he pleases to soothe the pain in his head and in his heart.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

He scares away the strangers that try to stay in his home. They can't stand the screaming

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

There's no furniture left in the place - his old furnishings were taken away a long time ago, and he'd wrecked whatever whoever had tried to move in. He lays down on the floor of his old room and watches the days pass like minutes.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

It hurts. He wants to be able to sleep, but nothing ever changes. 

Then someone else comes to the house.

(it's Jake)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

He's older now. Facial hair and the barest hints of salt and peppering in that crow black mop that's since been tamed. But there's no mistaking that slight gap in his teeth when he grins. The little noises he makes to himself, like he's talking so loudly in his own head it almost becomes words. 

Those eyes.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

Dirk feels totally frozen. It can't be him. It can't be. He's suddenly angry again. Why didn't Jake come here sooner? Didn't he know? Hadn't anyone told him what happened?

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

Dirk watches the man glance about the doorway, and into the small kitchen. He ducks his head back outside, and shouts. Dirk can't focus but on the anger, and the hurt, the hurt in his head and chest, both equally humming and encompassing. 

Had there been a funeral? Had Jake gone? What had he said, to his friends, to his grandmother. 

What had happened? 

A young face peers around the doorway then. Her hair is just as black as Jake's, eyes just as bottle green. A huge white dog pads up and nudges her back.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

A child. Jake- has a child. The implications of that make him want to scream, but he finds he suddenly has no voice. The little girl looks through him at Jake. The dog sees him though.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

The beast stays by the girl's side as it freezes just like Dirk had. He can see it's pointed gaze, clearly territorial as shepherds can be as it wuffles the air, friend or foe, those lips lifting to show teeth..

It sneezes, unimpressed. The girl giggles.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

Jake ushers her upstairs, leaving Dirk alone in the kitchen. Blood pools on the kitchen tile. Dirk shivers.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

Dirk hates the kitchen. 

He holds his head and in turning, catches sight of the car outside. 

No one else. No..wife. Just an over-full truck, and footsteps in the overgrown grass.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

And so, the love of his life and his daughter move into the house. Dirk, can't really talk to them. He can't manifest much when it's not That Day. But he does try to reach out.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

Jake..Jake simply can't look at. He can't take his eyes off the man, but daring to try..anything with him feels like throwing a rock into a black well. 

So he observes the girl. Jade, so her first grade homework always proudly states at the top. She sticks stickers of atoms and rocket ships and strange octopus dolls called 'squiddles' onto the windows of Dirk and his broth-...her room. She sneaks granola bars and chips up when Jake sits for long minutes on the front porch, smoking a pipe. Bec, the great white beast, never leaves her side, and eyes Dirk as he lurks about. An intruding in his own home.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

It's almost, nice. He can almost pretend he's living here too. Watching Jade putter around, or listening to her squeal in delight as Jake attempts to tame her Hair. He had never thought about children... Before, but the thought that this could have been his. It hurts in a different way.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

The days go by. He can feel the summer growing higher. Jade stays in bed one monday, and there is no bus. Dirk grows anxious, and one evening, as he's watching them in the doorway between the hall and the living room, Jade asks what that smell is. Jake sits up a little straighter, and indeed. There is the scent of cigarette smoke, rather then his own pipe tobacco. Something sharp and fetted - beer, and..worse. 

If Dirk could breath, it still woudn't stop him from clutching at his chest, and ducking away to 'his' room. It's getting closer. The days are warmer. (Perfect..perfect summer, perfect evening, a long bike ride..to their special place by the willows..)

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

His head hurts, and his chest hurts, but this time he doesn't want to be angry. The cicadas buzz outside.

(Holding hands on the bank... Dipping their feet in the water, resting against a warm, broad chest. He felt so safe there...)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

He stands in the doorway between the kitchen and the small foyer. A floorboard creaks, and the light goes dim in the drawing darkness. The frogs and crickets outside sing in the still, hot air. Sticky metallic fills his nose and wets the side of his face. The stain on the cracked white tile of the counter corner is dark. Its not the tile that's there, that some other family had laid down. 

("Have you ever thought about following the train tracks? Just..going? Just sayin' 'fuck it' an seeing where it'll take ya?")

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

He's on the ground, numb and in agony all at once. He screams.

(He doesn't get the chance to respond before the headlights turn on, freezing them both in place, sealing his fate)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

Something breaks through the cacophony of heat and cold and fear and anger and pain, pain pain and dark numbness and falling, he's falling and frightened and kitchen light is passing him and he's in pain, over and over- 

Large, socked feet step into view, in and out as the light in the kitchen fizzles out, Dirk rolling up the one eye that's still open, to meet eyes green as the leaves on the trees outside, before the light is gone, and it's all dark again. 

("..I'm sorry Jake..")

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

Jake was woken up by the sound of someone walking in the Hallway of the house. He'd gone downstairs to investigate...

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

It's not Jade. She's a funny girl, and had taken it upon her self to memorize every loose and old floorboard in the house. She didn't squeak anymore. 

The screen door slammed open, then closed. The air smelled like cigarettes and cheap booze. 

Bec was stock still in the living room, looking at something, growling so hard he was practically vibrating where he stood...had he left the light on in the kitchen? He hadn't thought so..

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

He hears a muffled voice, like someone's on the phone, having a one way conversation. It sounds scared, like it's begging for someone to not hurt it. The lights flicker.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

Jake's gut is tight. Something is churning in the back of his head. Something he left, a long time ago, and came back to make sure it was gone. 

He steps into the kitchen, light erratic, to see what in the bloody blazes...

It's not his kitchen.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

The room is a decade out of date, white tile counters and floors. There's an ashtray on the kitchen table, overflowing with cigarette butts. The smell of smoke and alcohol is worse here.

There's someone standing near the counters, the source of the voice. Jake can't make him out clearly, bug his voice is clear as day.

"Please, please, I'm sorry! It won't happen again, I'll stay away from him-"

The figure is abruptly stumbling to the side, like he was hit by an invisible fist. He cries out in pain and the light flickers more.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

It's too hot. The window above the sink - white, stained, cracked ceramic, still an old farmhouse, filled with empty bottles, dirty dishes - is open, the fan overhead spins lazily in the yellow, spazmatic light of the bulb. Jake cannot move, in the doorway, watching. He cannot break from the hold his thundering heart has on him, he - that voice, it-

the small figure makes for the door to the living room, where Jake is, and something grabs it back. It spins, lit a top let loose, and like a crack of distant heat lightning, brightening the summer night sky, Jake sees amber eyes, over balanced, slipping, falling, a cry cut off. 

The lightbulb shatters. 

"..I'm sorry, Jake.."

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

He knew Dirk Strider had died that summer. He knew. His grandmother had called it a tragedy. 

No one told him it had been Like this. 

His kitchen is his kitchen again, though the ceiling light has blown. The figure lays on the floor, small and fragile looking. Blood is seeping into the floor, but it leaves no stain.

"... Dirk..?"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

The specter opens his eyes in the darkness. 

...There had never been anyone around before. 

Jake is watching him. He can feel those eyes on him like the first day in class.. "..why are you here?"

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

"I- we- this was your house? I had no idea-" he sputters and trails off.

"You're dead."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

It's hard to actually hear the voice. He know it well, but if he didn't, there would be no second chances to understand through the muffle, the way it tuned in and out like a bad radio reception, some words lost entirely, but for those who knew what was going to be said. 

"Yes," he says, simply. Yes. "..and you have a daughter."

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

"I do. Her mother, she's dead too. I- couldn't stay there any longer."

Dirks form crackles.

"you told me that you loved me. Were you lying?"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

"I-" Jake runs hands through his hair, watching the living imprint of his - of Dirk Strider watch him. That single-eyed gaze bores into him, a breeze picking up in the room, flipping the calendar that hung on the wall by the fridge. 

"You," Jake starts, voice as steady as he can make it, "are dead. You died over twenty years ago, I can't.." 

Jake's tongue feels like lead in his mouth, and he feels ready to spring away, or vomit. "...I think...I was very young. And so were you."

no offense Jake, but internalized shit and repression is probably not the best in dealing with the ghost of you highschool sweetheart's homophobic death day

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

yeah no kidding

Dirk crackles again and the wind gets stronger. The room smells like ozone and blood. 

"He killed me because of you. It's your fault I'm like this."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

The form is growing foggier, even as he watches. Jake stumbles back, fear in his stomach like a rock dropping it to his feet. 

"I - Dirk, I'm sorry, I didn't know he was there! I shouldn't have told you-" 

the room goes very still. Jake's words die like a boy found out on his lips.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

When the shade speaks again, his voice is distorted by static and tears. 

"I thought of you. All these years, I only wanted to see you again... I really did love you, Jake. Seems like I shouldn't have bothered."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

There is a moment, between breaths, between empty words on old tongues only fit for the past, when the boy laying prone is just watching him. Cornsilk hair dark and tacky, one eye crushed, hazing in and out of reality like the end of a dream. Golden eye watching, wet. 

And then he's gone. 

And then everything in the house is slammed down. Jake hears Jade cry out, and it's like reality had never left.

Dirk doesn't hurt Jade, but it's like slamming your hands down on the keys - not gonna hit all of the, but a sizable keysmash

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

Almost Every light in the house is shattered, and a lot of things are thrown around. When Dirk comes back to himself, the house is pretty trashed. He can't find it in himself to be sorry.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

He loses what little interest in the family - Jade, really - he had. He retreats back into that numb, sightless, soundless void, to..wait, he supposes. Until the next summer. Until the next family. Until this place is nothing but dirt. 

What will that do to him, he wonders, when he's being particularly creative. But then he remembers it can't be worse then this. And he doesn't care. 

He waits for them to leave.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

They do for a few days. But then Jake comes back. Jade and her dog Aren't with him. But Jake, settles back into his routine. It's irritating.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

It sounds like the beginning of a joke. How do you cure a drepressed ghost

The last person Dirk wants to see. Or hear, or know is in his house. He's not capable of manifesting as he is on That Day, but..Jake doesn't deserve to be here.

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

Jake is fully aware his presence isn't welcome. But he still doesn't leave. It feels like something needs to be finished here.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

(I think I'll be heading to bed here, a bit earlier lol)

(this one is v good so far, I love it)

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

(same, v sad and spoopy)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

there's a scene where Jake's taking shower and just Knows Dirk is glaring at him, and he says 'if I wanted a 16 year old to stare at me, I'd move back to the city and find a gym.' and suddenly the Glare is gone

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

fjdkskdk JAKE DON'T BE MEAN

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

(I think the solution to..Dirk, sorry to say, is going to be complicated)

(but! tomorrow. goodnight!)

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

(oh yeah Dirk needs to be laid to rest. G'night!)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

(I've thought of an ending scene for this and made myself sa d)

(also morning!)

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

(oooh sharek

(I have my own)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)05/14/2020

(so. They form a sort of reconciling over the next year. Dirk learns about Jakes life after his death, and Jake..stops repressing that hes at the very least, not straight. 

The day of Dirk's death, Jake knows this has to end. He can't bear to see Dirk go through that night over and over again. So, when he sees Dirk manifest, he takes him out. 

Out of the house, away. Dirk's not sure how it's possible. He's never left the house for..twenty one years. 

Jake takes him to the river. Maybe it's because Dirk is with him, but he's certain it's unnaturally just like they left it. 

They sit there, for a while. Watching the water go by. Washing the smell of blood away, Jake holding Dirk. 

Jake goes home. He moves out. He never forgets.

(what's yours)

Berd Alert (Cassa)05/14/2020

(owwwww)

Mine is a little more actively sad

Jake figures out a way to exorcize Dirk from the house, and he tells Dirk he's going to try it. Dirk agrees. Jake performs the exorcism, and Dirk's ties to the house are broken. He has a few minutes before his soul moves on, and free from the pain relieving his death caused, he only has one thought.

I want to live.

Jake holds him as best he can, as Dirk cries, in relief, but also in grief. He wants to stay, to grow old with Jake and his daughter. To see the world, to have left this little nowhere town and have actually been someone. 

He says goodbye, and Jake is left in the empty house, holding a willow leaf.

  
  



	10. Heart of the Garden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Flower Language' is a code used to communicate various ideas to people via arrangements of beautiful blooms. In this world, having blossoms in your words might mean something else. 
> 
> Hal notices a new boy at school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, Hi folks! this one is dark. TW for vague body horror, Serial killing and Major character death. There is no happy ending.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:21 PM  
'what a lovely garden'   
'thanks :)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:21 PM  
Hal as a serial heartbreaker  
Is so fun

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:22 PM  
so many people have 'moved away' since he came to town

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:22 PM  
Such a shame  
Hal has an absolutely Massive garden, most of it was normal before  
But he's known for prize winning flowers

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:24 PM  
He longs for something though  
a prize centerpiece for the heart of the garden

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:27 PM  
Then Dirk shows up. Such a pretty boy would grow some true beauties, he's sure.  
So Hal drops by to say hello

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:28 PM  
He wants to turn the charm up to 11 right off, but Dirk is quiet and reserved  
he almost brushes off Hal at first

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:28 PM  
This seed needs water and sunlight

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:29 PM  
He's new to school, so Hal asks if he'd like a tour of the school

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:31 PM  
Dirk thinks it'll be helpful so he accepts

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:32 PM  
Hal isn't so talkative himself, and he mostly points out the people about. Commenting.  
He asks Dirk if he's seen anyone interesting yet. If so, Hal could tell him all about them.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:34 PM  
Dirk is still really reserved  
He says he's not really interested in anyone at the moment.  
Hal is. Disheartened by this

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:35 PM  
It's not often, but he HAS had a few where it's just a no go. His seeds never sprout. Disappointing..

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:36 PM  
He really does have his heart set on this lovely orange blossom

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:36 PM  
Well. He's got all year. It's only day one.  
He tells Dirk to find him if he ever needs anything. Don't be a stranger.  
he then proceeds to stalk Dirk online

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:39 PM  
He's really the perfect seed. No family, not many friends. No one would miss him. Then, a golden opportunity. Dirk gets sick

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:40 PM  
It's nothing severe, but Dirk doesn't get sick often. He's holed up inside his foster home, feeling like something run over, when he gets a message.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:43 PM  
It's Hal, noting he wasn't at school today. asking if he's alright, or if he needs anything  
It's enough  
The seed starts to take root

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:44 PM  
Dirk responds, saying some company reviewing notes he got from a classmate wouldn't hurt.  
It was nice of Hal to offer.  
Hal comes and offers some tea as well.  
Orange and honey.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:46 PM  
It's nice  
Dirk hasn't had any friends in a long time. It's nice to know someone noticed he was gone.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:48 PM  
Hal's smile is small, and he can't top looking at Dirk. It makes the boy squirm a little. 

"..What? Something on my face?"  
Berd Alert (Cassa)  
started a call that lasted a few seconds.  
Yesterday at 8:49 PM  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:49 PM  
Oops  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:50 PM  
gppfo  
I didn't notice  
I was watching indian cooking  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:50 PM  
Pfft  
"oh, it's nothing. just glad you're feeling better." 

Hal rests his head on his chin, still looking. It may look fond, but in reality he's thinking about what will take root in Dirk's lungs. Orange blossom, maybe. Or carnations. Maybe if he's really lucky, roses.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:55 PM  
Oh, that would be so very painful for the boy. Thorns along every branch.. but so beautiful. Fitting for such a prickly specimen. 

But would it be even nicer, if it was something so sweet as orange? Soft and delicate and something you appreciate on multiple levels? Hal sips his own mug of tea. Sweet, the smallest hint of citrus. He wonders what Dirk will be like on his tongue one day.  
"I think after you're well enough, some time outside will do you good."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:58 PM  
Dirk feels himself flush.

"Yeah. Maybe." 

The first leaves appear a week or so later  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:59 PM  
The cold hasn't quite left Dirk, and he's eating. Somthing bitter fills his mouth after coughing for a few minutes.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 9:03 PM  
He fishes out the source. A thin, dark green leaf. 

Naturally, Hal is the first one he calls  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:05 PM  
Hal is oddly..nonchalant when he hears about it. He asks seemingly banal questions that have no bearing on the situation - what does the leaf look like, can you send a picture. 

Dirk almost has to remind Hal what this fucking means.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 9:12 PM  
He sends the picture anyway  
Hal studies it later that evening. It's a leaf from an orange tree. He can barely contain his grin. His precious seed will become an orange tree.  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:16 PM  
Dirk meanwhile is wondering who, in only a month of school and barely knowing the names of anyone let alone their personalities, that could possibly have a crush on him.  
er no  
he could have a crush on  
that's how it works, right  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 9:18 PM  
Ye  
Hal insists on taking care of him

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:19 PM  
'I live alone as well - my parents never much cared for me, and I have a lot of room in the place they rent for me to keep me away from them. And like I said, you need some quality time in the sunlight and air. You'll get used to it with me."  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 9:20 PM  
Hal's garden is beautiful. Massive, sprawling, and so well tended.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:22 PM  
Dirk is still stressing over the leaves - which are coming once or twice a week now. Hal simply says it will sort itself out, and to have a seat. Enjoy the flowers. Plants make the best neighbors.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 9:22 PM  
He notices Hal talks to his plants  
A beautiful lilac tree appears to be his favorite  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:24 PM  
It's rather large, indicating its been there for a while. It and the apple tree get a lot of attention. 

Dirk is starting to get..vibes. Not sure what kind, but just, Feelings.  
He..supposes the plant-talking thing is kinda cute, if insanely lonely.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 9:27 PM  
(the apple tree makes me retroactively sad )  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:27 PM  
(hahah oh, old pain)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 9:28 PM  
He keeps trying to insist he needs medical attention, but Hal makes him some tea, and tells him he just need his fresh air  
Then the flowers start to come  
And Dirk is scared  
He sneaks out to go see a doctor

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:32 PM  
Hal doesn't like this. Due to stress Dirk hasn't noticed the little tracking app Hal put in the middle of all the others on his phone. 

The doctor doesn't have much good to say. Dirk already knows the options. Surgery, and losing the ability to feel anything..or find the person. Hope for the best. 

The third is never said.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 9:34 PM  
He knows that if nothing is done, he'll die. 

"But- what if they reject me?"

"Then, the only real option is surgery"  
Hal is Waiting when he gets back  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:37 PM  
He's all over Dirk the moment he gets back. Petting his hair, scolding him, making Dirk promise to never, ever scare him like that - what if something had happened to his little sapling? 

He sees the paper for the consultation and the pamphlet for post-HK op in his hand.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 9:37 PM  
He asks to see it  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:38 PM  
ugh, now I'm thinking of my surgery :<   
Dirk tries to explain things to Hal - he's been wonderful to Dirk, but this has gone too far. He has to do something about it.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 9:41 PM  
"But Surgery, Dirk? You won't be able to feel anything, not just about the person you feel this for, but everything. You'll never feel happy, or sad, or excited- thats no way to live!"  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:44 PM  
Dirk starts shouting - everything building up over the weeks coming out at once. "WELL I DON'T FUCKING HAVE A WAY TO LIVE WITH THIS EITHER, DO I!?" 

He starts hacking, bringing up torn petals and buds, more leaves. He feels heavy, and the doctor said he should avoid talking too much.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 9:50 PM  
Hal's face shifts into an expression of concern and he steps forward, taking Dirk by the arm.

"You should go lay down."  
Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 9:53 PM  
Dirk leans heavily into Hal. He seems so much stronger then him..and he's only trying to help..

"..Sorry..Didn't mean to shout at you.."

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 9:55 PM  
(I want Dirk to ask Hal About his plants)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:38 AM  
(Hal likes to talk about them. Like theyre friends)  
Dirk has his date set.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:17 AM  
Hal tries to dissuade him, but he has his mind made up. Hal is sure he'll lose Dirk and his sapling. But then, when he goes in to have the procedure, the doctors say that the plant has spread. It's not just in his lungs.

It is too risky to operate

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 9:57 AM  
Dirk sort of walks out of the office in a daze  
The doctors are sorry, but nothing to be done  
Hal is waiting at home, witb a mug of orange tea.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 9:58 AM  
Dirk has a bit of a breakdown  
Cries into Hal's shoulder, convinced there's nothing to be done. He doesn't even try to confess

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 10:04 AM  
Hal pets his hair, though doesn't offer any condolences. This is for the best. 

He tells Dirk he can stay with Hal, if he likes.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 11:19 AM  
Dirk stays  
His condition rapidly deteriorates. The buds and leaves turn into branches  
Hal tends to him, delicately prunes and waters and cares for him.  
Dirk thinks he can hear Hal whispering what a beautiful tree he'll make

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:37 PM  
The ending of this is basically how you think it plays out. Dirk isnt awake much, and Hal has begun leaving him outside for long periods of time. He can't really move, and though there is no pain he just feels heavier and heavier.

Hal is digging at something in the middle of the garden.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:40 PM  
He wants to ask what it is, but the branches are erupting out of his mouth, he hasn't been able to talk for months. 

He wakes up one night to Hal carrying him out into the garden.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:42 PM  
It's barely dawn, a slight mist in the air. Dirk's head is stiff to move as he tries to look about. Hal is smiling. He looks nice like that. Too bad Dirk could never tell him that..

There's a large pit in the middle of the garden, and some stones nearby to form a pretty, landscaped circle around whatever Hal plants.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:45 PM  
Dirk struggles when he realizes that he's what's going in the ground. But he's weak and Hal knows how to restrain a seedling.

"Shhhh, none of that. You'll hurt yourself more."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:46 PM  
(i think the ghosts of the deceased are trapped in the bushes and trees that come from hanahaki btw)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:46 PM  
(absolutely)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:48 PM  
Dirk can't do anything to stop him. Hal uses cord and twine (all biodegradable of course!) to keep Dirk in line. He folds him into a fetal position, laying him gently in the earth. 

Dirk hasnt cried in months, not since that day he fell into Hal's arms.

It was you..it's been you..those missing people ..

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:51 PM  
Hal smiles at him, pets his hair. 

"I know you're scared. Don't worry. It will be over soon. You'll like being part of my Garden. They all do."

He stands up, and moments later, the first shovel full of dirt hits his legs

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 12:53 PM  
Dirk wiggles but.

Where would he go? Hes out of time, out of options. Out of even breath. 

He stares up at the lavender sky full of fading stars and wonders what's on the other side of them. 

The earth is still warm against his skin.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 12:53 PM  
It's black and still for a long time. He's aware he's probably died, but. Nothing changes. 

As time passes, things start to get clearer. He can hear voices, quiet, sad, yearning. So many of them. He can hear his own too, though it's quieter. 

Why? Why did you do this to me? I loved you... But you only loved what was growing inside me...

He becomes aware of where he is. A kind of hazy sight. He's high in the garden, surrounded by leaves and white buds. An orange tree.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:19 PM  
He can see Hal moving about the garden, caring for the other plants. But now he can see them for what they truly are.

His victims.

Each one has a shade tangled in its branches and leaves. Each one blooming, flourishing in vain to gain his love.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:12 PM  
And in his own sick way, a way that Dirk...wishes he could feel the burn of hate in his chest anymore..he does love them. His prizes. His conquests and lovelies. 

He seeded them and now reaps the reward. 

Dirk is by far his most visited tormentee. He's never sure..but he suspects he can see the misty hints of himself reflected in those cold red eyes. As if Hal knows they're there. 

They are his to torment, to lust over, to touch and trim and keep. 

Dirk cant help but long to reach out to him as well. To..harm, to hold, he can't say.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:52 PM  
Hal sits in the branches of the tree sometimes. The boughs make a nice resting spot.  
And the oranges are very sweet

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:56 PM  
Something changes one day. 

Hal brings someone new home. Everyone in the garden - the shades, spirits, the souls of the plants there that Dirk doesn't communicate with, and who don't communicate with him and that's fine - watch with tired eyes. If Dirk could still feel something, he'd try to tell the girl with pink eyes and bouncy hair and a bubbling personality to run. 

Oddly enough though, when Hal shows her the garden, all his ill-begotten delights - plucks a fruit from Dirk's tree, she looks up 

and pales. 

At the sight of Dirk.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:59 PM  
A sudden, desperate need to protect her erupts inside him. He stretches as far as he can, trying in vain to reach out to her. The tree creaks and groans, and with all the strength he can muster, he manages a single word.

RUN

It's too much for him, and as soon as he stops reaching he is blind and deaf, back in his bones tangled in the roots of the tree. He hopes she heard him

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:04 PM  
For a long time, it's silent and black. 

Dirk supposes this is what it's supposed to be like to be dead. For a long time, he doesn't try to escape the snare, or himself. 

He cannot hear the voices above. Or see the lights, glaring red and blue in strobes.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:07 PM  
He is suddenly thrust back into the tree, when they come to dig him up

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:10 PM  
They're all over the place. 

Apple - he thinks he was once a boy named...oh..something with a D name, he very distantly recalls from the missing persons report however long ago - is..gone. There's a carefully dug hole..there's little yellow cards her and there with numbers on them, people in white coverings, men in suits

Someone is lifting soil from his roots. Exposing - well. 

It's only been months..it's...not pretty under there.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:14 PM  
He's at least identifiable. A pity, since no one will mourn him.  
21 bodies in total, and Dirk's is the only one they can properly identify

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:17 PM  
It gets..quieter, after a while. They don't leave - Dirk distantly heard the men talking, most everyone in the garden will be taken to somewhere to be..cold cases for the rest of whatever their existence is going to be. Sure, they have the one who did it, but. No one knows who they all are. 

Dirk barely remembers himself. 

It's the dead middle of the night when he sees the pink haired girl again. She slips into the back garden, hidden by plain old trees, past the night watch who's not paying attention.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:20 PM  
She's quick, and carefully climbs up the trunk of the tree, sitting in his topmost branches.

"Hi again. Your name is Dirk, right? I wanted to say thank you."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:23 PM  
Oh. 

Um, 

Dirk find it in himself to nod. Just a little. Enough to give her the impression of a 'you're welcome'. He finds, as usual, his focus drifting. Its..surprisingly hard to keep himself 'here' now. It's quiet for a bit, and he thinks that's the end of it. 

She starts talking again, though.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:26 PM  
"-stay here. If all those people are stuck, like you were, I want someone to take care of you. I think it's only fair. You did save me after all. They found Carnations in my lungs. Early enough to get them out though. And plus I think the fear factor killed my crush good and dead."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:29 PM  
He stares at her while she speaks. After months of Hal, nothing but Hal ad his soft tones and controlled words, it's. Sort of nice, Dirk supposes, to listen to her ramble on, chattery. 

And yes. He thinks the slight bit of relief he feels is mirrored some on his face, because she nods so hard he thinks she'll fall off the branch. 

"Oh my god, I know. I..brr..it's sort of really fucking scary how..well he...did that stuff.."

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:32 PM  
Yes. he murmurs, not able to bring his voice any louder. Scary.

He wishes he could feel her sitting with him. His sense of touch is long gone, the last he remembers of it is Hal's hand on his head, that last night, in the hole, in the dirt. The hollow under his roots feels empty.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:36 PM  
me: roxy, you can't adopt ghost   
roxy: what's stopping me - you?

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:36 PM  
Roxy: adopt and care for 21 ghosts in a ghost garden

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:37 PM  
perfect plan  
also try to find their lost identities for them

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:37 PM  
Also I do have an idea for comeuppance for Hal

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:38 PM  
Hohoh

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:39 PM  
As the spirits either find peace or turn their affection to others, Hal develops the condition himself  
(though, he may have had it before, and had the surgery, which is why he didn't feel anything)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:40 PM  
(Hal, galaxy brain sociopath who had Even More of an emotional fuckening: I think I will gather things to love me and only me :> surely that's feeling something

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:42 PM  
(hey, he had to try something)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:42 PM  
Hal, coughing up a lily: o h

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:45 PM  
Hal, coughing up funeral lilies: O h n o  
He refuses treatment and asks to be buried in his garden

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:46 PM  
He finds it rather empty. 

And rather lonely.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:47 PM  
His flowers don't talk to him anymore, and if they do it's with fury and contempt

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:48 PM  
Roxy is the only one who visits.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:48 PM  
The lilies aren't very healthy, no matter what Roxy does to try help them

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:49 PM  
She talks to him sometimes. Never anything but polite nothing conversation.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:50 PM  
For the first time since they took his heart, he actually feels something. 

He's so lonely it hurts.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:51 PM  
me: don't feel sorry for Hal 

me: five minutes later: aaA

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:51 PM  
Ha  
We are predictable  
I think Dirk might reach out. At least a little bit, he knows what it's like to be alone. He wouldn't even wish it on his murderer

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:53 PM  
Hal is inexplicably afraid of Dirk.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:53 PM  
A tree is much stronger than a flower

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:55 PM  
Dirk is a lot like Roxy, if less distant. 

He asks why Hal did this - what on earth could possibly inspire such atrocity.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:56 PM  
Hal tells him  
He had always had trouble feeling things. The doctors would diagnose him with sociopathy when he was 6 years old, but he had felt something once. A deep, desperate love. But the object of his affections turned him down, and the first bought of foliage had taken root inside him

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:03 PM  
His parents hated him. He never acted right in their eyes, but once..exactly once.. he had someone who he could do no wrong for. Who was loyal. Who made a promise. 

Hal was going to keep them to their promise. 

The bloody, shriveled thing he put on their desk the next week wasn't taken well, but Hal didn't care. There was a lot he didn't 'emotion' anymore. 

Dirk listens. He's always been a good listener. 

He asks if Hal could always see the ghosts.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:05 PM  
Hal admits he couldn't. He’d learned to with time and practice. And when he could see them, and hear how they yearned for him, he wanted more.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:06 PM  
He got everything he deserved. 

Everything.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:06 PM  
Dirk can't exactly disagree with him  
did you ever think it was wrong? Did you really feel nothing for the people you killed? For me? 

Hal's shade shifts.

I loved the flowers. They were beautiful, and they couldn't leave me.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:09 PM  
Dirk refuses to try to move on until everyone else trapped in the garden is gone.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:12 PM  
It's a long time. The oldest ones stubbornly cling to their roots, and it takes a lot of gentle convincing from Roxy. But ultimately, it's just Hal and Dirk left

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:13 PM  
Hal insists this is only fair.  
He lost - Dirk needs to go. 

He doesn't want him here anymore.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:15 PM  
Dirk was always a stubborn bastard.

If you think this was a competition you're more stupid than I thought. I'm staying.  
I think Hal has a bit of a breakdown before he goes

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:19 PM  
He can't actually stand the thought of being alone - totally alone - but he cannot bear the thought of Dirk staying. Knowing him, inside and out, seeing into his every particle.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:23 PM  
Dirk listens as this man who was emotionless his whole adult life, cries and screams and shakes so hard the flowers holding him quiver. 

He just wanted to be loved, was that too much to ask? For someone to give a damn About his existence? He had to kill for it. And he did, and he ruined so many people's lives because he couldn't fill up this hole that was inside him. 

The lilies are Wilting. He's not going to be here much longer, one way or the other.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:27 PM  
Dirk cannot help the ghost (ha) of a feeling for the man that fans through his chest, like so many roots. Many of Dirk's branches are dry, falling off, dead. 

The garden is barren, here. Nothing can grow in mud fed with blood and tears. 

Dirk's shade sits in the lilies, watching them brown, and crumble. 

Have you ever tried making a garden with someone?

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:29 PM  
Hal sits in the dirt, curled into a ball. He's very faint now, hard to see. 

I don't know how... And even if I did. We're out of time.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:32 PM  
It seems they are. 

Dirk places what's left of his own hand where Hal's ought to be. He looks like watercolor that's been washed away, only the hint of a person. 

I think you can do it. I hope you will try.  
Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:38 PM  
Light glints on what might have once been a tear, rolling down Hal's cheek. He nods.

If I ever get the chance. I will.

The sun rises, and the last of the tree's leaves fall. The garden is empty.


	11. Betrothed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat owes a lifedebt to a local vampire coven. After his tithe is payed he will become a full fledged member. 
> 
> The two 'humans' that sit at the coven's feet offer a different path.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi
> 
> This one is weird - sensing a theme perhaps? We wanted to do something with vampires, but could never quite settle on what. As a warning, this does include some minor Daverose, and gore. Mind the tag. Also implications of child molestation and coercion. 
> 
> Also trans Dave :>

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 6:24 PM

I'm a little all over the place today lol but wouldn't it be hot to have Dave or rose in a vampire den, being treated with reverence and respect in return for feeding the coven?

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 6:24 PM

Yesss it would

I think the vampires don't actually need to take that much, but when it's all at once and with the venom

whoo

'why is there a human in here?' 

'he's an important member of this coven and also why the humans haven't hunted us down'

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 6:25 PM

Dave: fucked out and on a venom high

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 6:26 PM

ritually

just, laying in bed as one after another come in

can't lift a limb, but they're strong enough to move him themselves

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 6:28 PM

Hhh

Gentle kisses and licks over the healing marks from other vampires, before they take their fill themselves

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 6:30 PM

Sometimes they take something else from him while they do. The warm blood makes them feel alive, 'up' if you will.

Dave has no complaints

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 6:31 PM

Vampires, clever tongues and fingers don't ya know

Rose gets her fair share of love and attention too

They're very happy, pampered and taken care of. And woe be to the one who attempts to steal or bring them harm

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 6:35 PM

They sit on the arms of the throne and at the feet and in the lap of their coven head at meetings.

They are the smug cats.

A human group tries to raid the castle and 'save' them

DAve and Rose lead them into a trap

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 6:37 PM

Their feeble cries for help turn into laughter as the group is captured and dispatched

Also I bet they're O-

Rare blood

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 6:38 PM

Jewels in a crown

they're soft with newbloods

The silly things still think of Dave and Rose as humans, bound and trapped

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 6:40 PM

They walk as freely as any of the coven, but their tithe is payed for in blood

This might be a scenario where I can see DaveRose happening

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 6:42 PM

It can happen

It's not an illusion, the power they hold in this coven

There's no 'behind the curtain lies horror'

they know who they are, what they are, and what they do

They find as much comfort in each other as the other members

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 6:43 PM

If they ask, the coven would do almost anything. it's a heavy responsibility to bear

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 6:44 PM

They end up sharing a newblood named Karkat

He's not yet a full member of the coven and dances around them like they frighten him

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 6:46 PM

They know how intimidating they can be. Rose delights in it, but Dave makes an effort to be gentle.

(oh also, Dave and Rose can't orgasm without being bitten)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 6:48 PM

oop, a scene just popped into my head of Karkat fucking Dave on a library table while Rose uses Dave's mouth and she tells Karkat to bite him

Karkat's family owes the coven a great dept

becoming a member was..only semi-voluntary. If not, the family would have to pay the coven back for lifetimes.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 6:50 PM

Well, they still will, it will just be Karkat's burden instead of his family's.

He's lucky that the Covens jewels took a liking to him, new blood is not always treated kindly

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 6:53 PM

He's not entirely certain what the twins are there for in the beginning. The coven didn't introduce them as more then their names, and told Karkat that they'd be of more importance to him once he Turned.

They also tell him not to worry about feeding - it's all very civil.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 6:55 PM

He sees them at every meeting of the clans, sitting at the feet of the Mother Superior. One notable time they just made out for the entire meeting

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 6:56 PM

He's never met two people..more..ugh. It's impossible to describe them.

One of the first times he even speaks with them is when he's alone in the grand library studying and Dave comes in and sits on the table.

He's only barely dressed in trousers and a loose shirt, barefoot and toying with the pages of Karkat's notes.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 7:01 PM

Karkat can see his, companion? Out of the corner of his eye. Dave's smile is absolutely radiant.

"We've seen you around here recently. When are you going to be turned?" 

He leans forward, and Karkat can see the myriad pink and white scars that litter his neck and collarbones like flower Petals.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 7:06 PM

"Uh-" Karkat says so smoothly, blinking as the moonlight reflects off of straight, white teeth and silken hair. "When my tithe to the coven is nearly complete. The rest will be given in blood and swearing my oath to live and die as one with the Legion." 

He recites it easily enough - he's heard it enough times. His oath, his place. The girl moves into the room like shadow herself, dressed in slightly less rumpled clothing. The moonlight catches in her unnatural eyes..

Karkat sees the boy's eyes as well - red. Preternatural. But his teeth aren't - they're not-? 

"I have work to do, then, obviously, so." Karkat says, shuffling the papers, purposefully. Looking down to avoid their gazes. The recent memories of that meeting..

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 7:09 PM

A cool hand reaches down, strokes his cheek and lifts his chin so he meets Dave's eyes again. 

"You know what they say about all work and no play Karkat. Why don't you put the book down and have some fun with us instead?"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 7:13 PM

Karkat is fairly certain Dave can feel him swallow at the statement. 

The girl - Rose - has moved behind him, hands resting lightly on his shoulders, circling around to finger a button on his collar. "We were never properly introduced and I think it's time we rectified that, besides. Give you our welcome to the coven."

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 7:16 PM

"I-is this allowed? I'm not-"

Dave laughs, sliding off the table so he's standing in front of Karkat.

"So long as it doesn't endanger our mistress or the Legion, we can do whatever we please. No one will even bat an eye."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 7:23 PM

Karkat is leaning back, the top buttons of his shirt undone and he's not expecting hands to come down, dip into it, tracing still-warm skin. Dave's joins hers, over Karkat's still beating heart. 

Rose nips at his ear, and Karkat doesn't jolt. Doesn't strangle a noise in his throat. His eyes flash to the door, left ajar by the twin's entrance. 

In a dark whisper, full of fangs despite the bluntness of her teeth, Rose speaks to him. "We are Rosaline and David Strider. We serve our Mother. We serve the blood. We serve the shadows on the moon. Forever we are bound body and soul to the whims of the Coven. You need only speak our names, and we are yours to command, to dominate, to cast into the night as you please. We are yours..and you, ours."

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 7:36 PM

Dave leans over and captures Karkats lips in a kiss. His lips are as cold as his hands, a harsh Contrast to Karkats blazing skin. Dave grins into the boys mouth.

"It's been so long since we've been with someone warm, hasn't it Rose?"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 7:41 PM

Karkat makes a muffled noise into the kiss. When Dave pulls back, he reaches out and grips his shirt, wishing him back. 

He's not left lonely for long as those dark, murmuring lips of his - his sister, apparently - find the side of Karkat's neck. Chill runs down his spine. 

"Too long, Dave. He's practically molten.." Her hand drifts lower, tugging Dave forward by his pants, urging him into Karkat's lap.

(I don't think Dave and Rose are Quite human anymore)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 7:47 PM

(no, not quite. Not vampires either though. They're Coven brides.)

Dave goes, settling down onto the young man's lap and loosely wrapping his arms around his shoulders. He presses his lips to the other side of Karkat's neck.

"Such a pity they have to Change if we want to keep them. I'll miss your heartbeat when it's gone, sweetheart." This last is directed at Karkat, who shivers as Dave's hands drop lower and settle on the waist of his trousers.

(why is this Dave such a flirty hoe)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 7:55 PM

(only the most powerful covens have them, and can keep them. Vampir hunters call them 'thralls' or 'damphirs' because they believe the venom makes them slaves, or they're somehow vampires that can walk abroad in the daylight due to the inhuman qualities long exposure to the venom gives them.) 

"I-" Karkat tries saying, but it's cut off when Rose bites down a bit harder. Her hands have opened his shirt and vest all the way, and are making quick work of his pants. 

He shifts for them, lifting his hips - right into Dave's, who's eyes shutter and his head bows. 

"Please, sir.." he thinks he hears the boy whisper, and when he looks - red eyes are on lavender. Still, waiting. 

Rose smiles. She nods, indulgent. 

Dave sinks to his knees on the floor.

(bc this is a vampire au, you can't NOT be a flirty hoe in a vampire au, Cassa.)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:00 PM

(true that)

Now, you see, Karkat is a virgin. He's never so much as touched himself, much less let someone else do it.

But Dave takes his cock into his mouth and suddenly every word he knows vanishes into thin air. He has to bite his hand to hold back the sudden, loud noise He makes. he can feel Rose's from next to him.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:08 PM

(hhuehgh ah yes, pure virgin flower character - a staple of any good bodice ripper) 

  
  


Karkat of course wouldn't honestly know a bad service from a good one - but he's willing to bet with the way Dave laves over the underside, darts his tongue into the slit, practically praises the damn thing..Dave's a good dicksucker. 

Karkat thinks of the nonchalance at which the siblings had at each other in front of the great clans and everyone. How the door is left open, they're in the middle of the library's lounge-

Granted, such thoughts don't linger as Rose reaches down, hand finding Karkat's trembling ones and bringing it to Dave's hair. She closes his fist in it, so fucking soft..and shoves

Dave all the way down.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:12 PM

Dave's eyes flick up to hers, a single eyebrow raises as if to say "really?" Before he focuses back in on his task. Karkat makes a pathetic little cry as he bobs and sucks.

"Pull his hair" Rose says softly in his ear. "He likes it"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Yesterday at 8:20 PM

The communication is lost on Karkat, who thinks his soul might be leaving via his cock at this point. 

He does follow Rose's advice though, the sock of her sporadic nips and kisses along both sides of his neck and her wandering hands sending shocks through him. It really won't take long.. He threads his fingers deeper into the locks and tugs. Dave makes a small noise, eyebrows furrowing. The boy's hips are moving as well, just a little. Following his own movements. 

Karkat imagines then, head tilting back and feeling the room spin what other things he might do. What Dave might be imagining as he echos his bobbing head. With them? Is this a one time thing? God knows he would never seek to take such liberties...he thinks. 

He can't think on it long. He's never done this before. He feels it come from down deep, as a dream, but much, much realer. This time, he has a soft, wet mouth to hold tight as he bucks in and cries his wonder to the giant room.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Yesterday at 8:29 PM

Dave, as it turns out, swallows.

He delicately slides off of Karkat's length, wiping his mouth on his sleeve and tucking the boy back into his pants. 

"I hope you enjoyed that. Next time you'll be expected to reciprocate."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

"Fuck.." Karkat wheezes out. 

"That's the idea. Eventually," Rose simpers. She draws Dave in and pecks him on the cheek, and pats Karkat's head. 

He watches then begin to leave, and while Rose slips soundlessly as any of the vampires in the castle into the hallway, Dave lingers for a moment by the door. Karkat has a moment of panic - should he say something? Thank him? What-

"Don't be a stranger - we meant it, you know?" Dave says, surprisingly sincere. It throws Karkat off.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

He doesn't have the chance to say anything before Rose grabs her brother's wrist and they disappear into the depths of the castle.

It takes a month for him to approach them.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

He finds the two curled up in a small alcove overlooking a field in the dead of night. He's noticed that places like this - these little window ledges and nooks - all have pillows and blankets and sometimes a book or two tucked away in them. He's been told not to disturb these places 'as it unsettles the dears'. 

He'd always assumed it was for the dogs. He was wrong, it seemed. 

Being only human still, his feet are apparently loud enough for there not-so-human-as-him ears, and when they look up from the book they were sharing, he pauses at how..dark their eyes are this time, even in the lit staircase.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't, uh. I didn't realize there was anyone here."

Rose smiles at him, and Dave closes their book.

"You certainly take your time, Don't you?"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

Karkat tries not to squirm under the gaze. It's no accusatory..at least, he hopes it's not. 

"I didn't think - well. I'd never..done anything like that before, what we did back in the library. Not with anyone. Even my s-self." He trips over that one, a sudden...odd shame filling him, in their presence, recalling the moments and imagining what he must look like to them. He looks away. "You're also surprisingly hard to find sometimes. And it's not like I know you two like - friends." 

Dave idly fingers the well-loved edges of the tome. Karkat notes the title in fading gold print, 'Le Morte d'Arthur', interesting. 

"Well, you could, if you wanted, for now."

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

"And we're really not that difficult to find. It seems to me like you were afraid to go looking. Come here, sit with us." 

Karkat does, Rose shifting so he can sit between them. Dave puts his hand on the other boy's thigh. 

"See? Nothing to be afraid of. We don't bite. Though I suppose you would want us to."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

Karkat's back stiffens at the hand on him, taking a deep breath. He really doesn't have that intention in mind. 

Now that he's up close, he can..smell something peculiar. It's not something he's even really smelling, it's just..in the air around them, he can sense it. He faces Rose (though keeps an eye on Dave and that hand of his) and can see now how much her eyes are dilated, how she's not wearing much more then a loose shirt and a shawl, the..dark lines that creep like thin veins from a - on her neck, it's - 

"I somehow doubt you biting is the problem," he says. "The big one anyway.." he mutters, looks over when Dave sees fit to come that much closer - and yes, it seems he's in a similar state to Rose, though she's managing it much better. 

"Not that there's a problem - I don't have a problem. I'm not afraid of you. I think there's plenty to be fucking terrified of in this place without adding whatever the hell it is you two do to the list of things I have to check under my bed for every ddamn morning," he huffs out, hands up. (He's..not really sure where he ought to put them that won't give them ideas..)

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

Rose takes his hand and kisses it, giggling at his flustered expression.

"You really are delightful Karkat. Of course, that's part of the reason why we chose you."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

Karkat thinks the tips of his ears are going to burn off from the complement. He allows Rose to keep the hand - and for Dave to lean into his side, bringing the blanket around him. 

"Well, I - you. What?" 

He blinks, her words registering after the initial discomfort of apparently being liked. 

"You mean the coven, right? When they agreed to take my offer of life for my family's debt?"

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

"No, we told the Mother Superior we wanted you. Just the two of us. You're ours my dear, to have and to hold for all eternity."

Dave's cool fingers slide up his leg, settling on his stomach. The boy rests his chin on Karkats shoulder.

"It's almost a pity they didn't make you a bride. You'd suit it, and then we'd match"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

It takes Karkat a moment to take in everything Rose is really saying. Dave's hands aren't helping. It's very close in the little alcove, the sounds of the night outside muffled, the curve of the stairs hiding them. 

His eyes are wide when he considers the weight of...these two. They chose him. After all..Kankri had offered as well. Karkat just..assumed that since he was the youngest, and, vampires are always said to love young, new blood...Maybe something in one of the many faery tales about the supernatural having a penchant for newborns? 

He was owned by the coven, until he was a full member. That might as well have been carved in the stone foundations of this place for all it was absolute. He supposed though, that meeting the people who actually held him in their arms made it...different. 

"A...bride," Karkat says quietly, letting Dave draw him down with him into the nest, nose in his hair. (His life is already so fucking weird, this might as well happen.) "I don't think I've heard that term before - people just called the humans who live with vampires slaves, or thralls."

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

"we're not thralls" Dave murmurs, in a way that makes Karkat Think he's said it many times before. "We're free to do as we please, so long as our tithe to the coven is paid. It just so happens that we Pay in blood."

Rose hums and sinks down to join them. She puts an arm around Karkat's waist and presses a kiss to his jaw.

"It's actually really quite nice. We're taken care of, given the best of everything. And the high from the bites isn't bad either."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

Well. That explains the hickies and eyes and that not-scent he can still sense, intoxicating, right at the edge of his senses like a word he only just forgot and is at the tip of his tongue. 

He wonders what a bite feels like. He looks to Dave while Rose speaks, seeing the deep bruising blotting the skin of his neck and shoulder, and winces a little, hoping they don't notice. They'd think him cowardly..and they'd probably be right. 

"Your tithes.." He flushes a little at the kiss, but it doesn't progress further. "You made a deal as well?"

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

"our parents did." 

That seems to sober them both a little. Dave takes Rose's hand and rubs his thumb over her knuckles.

"They weren't kind people."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

(yesss I knew this would be part of it)

(I was like 'ok, what did bro do this time')

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

(sold his children into bondage after neglecting and beating them)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

Karkat senses the change in tone immediately, and smacks himself on the head with a broom in his own head. Always ruining things.

"Oh. I'm sorry."

Pathetic. He can see the way Rose's confident eyes drift, and Dave's become sharper to compensate. As if looking out for each other's weaknesses. A 'sorry' clearly doesn't suffice here..but what else does he have for comfort from a past neither of them care to recount as their own, now that they've found their safe haven. 

He searches for a neutral topic. His eyes light on the book. "Do you read a lot? I mean, I suppose the coven can't all be h- um. W-wanting you guys all the time, right?"

(I mean, honestly, it's not that I think they were lucky the coven is generally good people - the fact they take this and use Dave and Rose like they do is,,,,still very dubious - but anyone would be better then Bro at that point)

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

(Dave and Rose have done this for a very long time. They're older than they look)

"Rose is more of the reader. I prefer music." Dave's voice is soft, he pulls himself closer, squishing Karkat between him and his sister. "but yes. We do like it."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

"My father likes poetry."

Karkat is surprised by his own words, their candidacy. He doesn't..talk about it. His childhood - he never had anyone to talk about it with. His human friends are all grown and left the tiny town when they had the chance, and by that point he was past the age where real friendship with people came easy, if at all. Only business partners, people you had an agreement with, people you tolerated and who wouldn't tell the church you're a witch or something to have a chance at getting your house and property when you were dead. 

"He taught me how to write. We weren't allowed to attend school, me and my brother. He taught us what he knew, and what he knew were songs from his country, his people. Mother wrote them down and showed us how to do the same." 

He lets himself sink into the embrace. "I hope he's alright..I don't doubt your healers, but just..fuck."

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

Dave and Rose share a look. Rose leans into him, and Dave hides his face in Karkat's hair.

"He's fine, and very safe from those who mean him harm."

"They miss you. You should write to them."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

Karkat finds an eyebrow raised. Not that he has reason to doubt her. His family is now under coven protection, in a way, now. Still, "How..do you know?"

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

"we have our methods. And it's not as if we're struck deaf at meetings of the council."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

Karkat pretends to find something very interesting on the ceiling of the little arched alcove. He'd payed attention at the last meeting! He did. Just. 

Sometimes certain people are distracting, and that first meeting, when he'd been brought before them, all the eyes glowing out of the darkness in the cavernous space below the castle they called the meeting hall, well. Paying attention to much more then 'we accept this tithe in payment for our services. A life for a life - the deal is struck and payed', wasn't high on his list of priorities. He hadn't needed to know more then to know his father was safe for the moment. 

"You must have quite the inside knowledge of all the good gossip," Karkat mumbles flatly.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

"Oh yes. You'd be suprised."

Dave laughs quietly, pressing his face a little harder into Karkats hair.

"Rose has the balls of every man in this castle in a vice grip. Watch out for her."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

The snort that bursts out of Karkat feels ungodly loud in the small enclosed space, but he can hear the smile in Dave's voice and the way Rose looks like a cat just finding out water is wet. Still, he doesn't doubt it one bit. 

"I think it's too late for me," Karkat says. "Save yourself. Or not, I guess. Seems like she got yours too, from uh. What happened before."

He finds his arm migrating, to circle slowly under Dave's body, the other..tentatively finding Rose's arm about his middle. They're not warm - he still questions that - but it's. Nice. 

This is the calmest he's been yet in this place. Not worried about putting a foot out of line, about if forgetting to use the correct title for someone will get his tithe revoked and everyone he loves killed. 

"I'm not..disturbing something, am I? Here, I mean, I know these little places are supped to be for you two now."

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

"We wouldn't have invited you in if we didn't want you here. You're absolutely fine." 

Dave nods. "You can use them without us too. If anyone gives you lip, you tell us and we'll take care of it."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

Karkat nods. "Alright. If you says so." 

He'll have to leave eventually. He has things he was going to do tonight - and now a letter home on top of that. But Dave is very well making him his stuffed comfort toy, and Rose is nodding decisively as if that's the final word on the matter, and picking the book back up. 

She begins reading again, voice soft and blending in with the noise of the night outside, and Karkat's own quiet breathing. Distantly, he notes Dave and Rose are only breathing half the time he is..but it's like their eyes now, the aura of something not-quite what it ought to be on either side. Halfway there. 

He doesn't know when he closes his eyes, but he thinks he feels a kiss on either side of his neck before he does.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

Time goes on, and Karkat does his best to pay off his debts, and to earn his place in the coven. He spends a lot of time with Dave and Rose, and he overhears senior members tittering about how well he's "courting" them. That raises some questions.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

Can one 'court' a bride?

Also, I doubt Karkat realizes that Dave and Rose are older then his own dad.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

Yeah no

He gets to observe a Turning after he's completed a year of service

It's a strange affair to him. The young woman receiving the honour seems excited though.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

Rose has spoken of this young woman a few times, in passing. She seemed nice enough to speak to when Karkat met her earlier in the night. 

She's presented to the Mothers - and Karkat may not be prepared for her to not actually be clothed at all.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/17/2020

She is, in fact naked as the day she was born. She kneels on the dias in from of the Coven's three mothers, and speaks vows that declare her to be forever a part of the Legion. When she is finished, the Mother Superior bids her rise, and opens her arms. The girl steps into the ancient vampiress's arms.

As soon as she does, all three of the Mothers grab ahold of her and sink their teeth into her flesh. She doesn't scream, barely even whimpers as they drink from her, claiming her lifeblood for the clan. She gets paler, and paler, until she goes limp in their arms. They lay her down in the moonlight. The dark stains on her neck and wrists look black and for a long, terrible moment Karkat thinks she is dead.

Then her eyes fly open and she gasps.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/17/2020

The moonlight is barreling down on her from above, reflected in the white walls of the cavern, the pale skin of all the creatures gathered and surrounding her. Pure. Powerful. 

She seems to hold the position for a moment, the look on her face of unbridled...something. Karkat could never hope to guess what might be going through her mind (and attempts not to listen to his own thoughts about what it must be like, death and rebirth.) but she looks..exulted. Like she's seen something no human ever has, and come back from it. He can't look away, not even when Dave and Rose slip from the shadows in the wings, their feet bare, the clothing much like the ritual dress of the Mothers. 

With gentle hands they soothe her, laying her limp once more. Together, practiced, flowing like water over black stones, they lift her, to her knees, to her feet. She finds them steady enough. 

With eyes new, she lifts her face to the moon, and smiles.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

The twins give her a robe, a dark, wine red, and she carefully wraps herself in it. Then she turns to Rose, delicately lifting the veil she's wearing.

"My lady, may I take my first blood from you?"

It's a little startling to hear her speak. Her previously steady tone is light and airy, almost dreamy. Rose nods.

"you may."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

It snaps into place, then, the name 'bride'. While what they did in the coven was explained, they never explained that specific little thing. 

Karkat supposes he'll feel stupid out the fucking obvious later - much later - because for the moment, Dave is bowing and backing off, back into the shadows that without the eyes of a vampire, Karkat cannot see into. The whole focus of the room is on the two. 

Oddly, though, he finds himself not focusing so much on the girl, the newblood, what he will be sooner then he thinks. 

It's on Rose. How with precise movements she undoes the veil, allowing it to fall. Unpinning of the dress, perfectly placed to expose the long line of her neck. Karkat now understands the coven-wide fast, before this. Rose is meant for this girl tonight, and this girl only. Her neck is as white as the newblood, and inviting. A promise. 

The newblood cups Rose's chin, and leans in. 

When teeth pierce flesh, Karkat's heart stutters with something he has no name for.

your mention of 'pity you aren't a bride' caught my attention

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

dave was basically saying "I want you to get high with me but, um. Yeah.

do we want Karkat to offer himself as a coven bride?

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

(I mean, we could. Or the Mothers could tell him about it and give him the option)

(he'll be paaying his tithe to them either way)

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

(I think they do the second thing)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

(yeee)

(I unironically love this so much)

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

(same?)

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

I would actually like to talk about how the Mothers approach him

I think it's after that turning

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

They Notice things

and Dave and Rose may or may not tell them stuff

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

He's called back to the chamber, and the three of them are waiting for him. He steps onto the dias and kneels.

"You wanted to see me, mothers."

The Mother superior nods.

"yes penitent Vantas, we did."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

He tries not to fear. His time here and getting to know everyone in this corner of the coven has helped ease many of the anxieties he's had about his to-be life. The Mothers are patient and fair. 

Aside from her, to the left, The Mother Sophos speaks. Her voice is like bones grating over each other, but from what he's been told, there is no other in the coven with cunning and wisdom to match. 

"We have been observing you, your journey into the Night and finding your place among Legion."

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

He nods, trying to be respectful.

"Yes. I am very grateful for the opportunity, your grace."

To the right, the Mother Fortis inclines her head. 

"We believe, However, that the path of Night is not right for you."

(15 mins to figure out a title lol)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

(FPFPFFPFFP we are nothing if not dedicated. Leader, Wisdom, and Strength)

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

(yep! It's Dolorosa, Grandma Harley, and probably Mindfang)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

(Ye. Mindfang is technically head of her own coven, but the two have been sister covens for a while now, which is why Karkat hasn't met Kanaya before now. She's not part of his coven, but the Turning ritual is a shared experience)

Karkat's heart leaves through his throat and shatters in a bloody mess on the white stone before him. 

He looks up, eyes wide at the veiled women. He wonders what's written on his face. He wonders if it matters now. His blood is in his ears like drumbeats in the deep, unknown depths of the hall. 

"...what?" he whispers.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

"Calm yourself, young one. You have taken your oath, and we do not intend to have you break it." Mother Sophos raises her hands, trying to comfort him.

"However It is our belief that you may perhaps be better suited to an... Alternative. You have become very close to our brides, have you not?"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

He needs a moment to actually accept that wonder of wonders, he's not being dismissed. He's not about to have his family's blood on his soul. He takes a moment to breath. He..hopes they don't take offense...

Their next question though..

He looks back down, respectfully, and tries to keep the trepidation out of his voice. "I - have. Yes." 

Karkat swallows, and figures honesty is the best policy. "We are closer then I've been with anyone in my life, outside of my family. Dave and Rose are. What friendship and love are supposed to mean. I believe." 

The rawness of the statement doesn't burn half as much as he expected it to.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

"Yes. We have seen your closeness. And I saw the way you looked at Rose tonight. It seems you care for them both very deeply."

He can hear the smile in the mother Superiors voice. She continues.

"However, if you were to remain on the path you currently walk, you will lose that connection. A fully fledged newblood has many responsibilities. They only see their brides to feed, and have precious few chances to do more than that."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

Karkat knows this. In the back of his mind, he's been trying to simultaneously come to terms with that impending loss that he's not been able to force himself to think about in months, and still try to frantically come up with some reason to stay around for longer after his Turning or somehow make sure he does have the time for Rose and Dave. 

If he was recollecting the pieces of his heart that had just shattered, he might as well have not even bothered. 

He nods, a small acknowledging bob of his head. "I understand, Mother." 

...Something nags about their wording..

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

"We intend, little fledgling, that you should join them." Mother Fortis looks down at him, her head tilted in a way that suggests she thinks Karkat is dense.

"If it pleases you, we would have you turn to the path of twilight, pay your tithe in blood, and become a bride of our coven."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

It's surprising how little surprise Karkat actually feels in the moment. 

He never considered-

But...all things considered-

And they still want him-

He won't have to leave them. 

His heart is making stained glass out of its shards, broken and made beautiful when carefully reconstructed, all his sharp edges made into red fractals that catch the light of a dying day. 

There is much more to learn now. More to discover, and know. He feels like he's in a dream. Knows better, though. 

"You would have me..and I would have them." He's smiling.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

"Yes, my child. Is this what you want?"

He nods, suddenly bouyant and overjoyed.

"Nothing would make me happier."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

The Mother Superior holds out her hand. "Rise then, penitent Vantas, and approach."

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

He stands, legs unexpectedly shaking, and walks towards her.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

It's seconds, it's hours before he stands before them on their stone seats, covered in green and blue and all the colors of the living world. 

The Mother Sophos speaks. "Bare yourself, and swear under the moon, under our Sight, so follows: The blood is the life of the Coven; the Coven is in me; to spill the blood is to spill the blood of Legion; to give the blood is to Become Legion. By the path of the Changing Day, so do I swear."

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

Karkat closes his eyes, and let's himself smile again.

"I swear it."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

The Mother Superior nods. "And you will keep the Coven, so the Coven keeps you, Karkat Vantas. The lifeblood, the creator, the bride to unite the Dawn and Sun with the Eve and Night. Legion welcomes you."

She stands from her seat, and takes his face in her hands.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

He closes his eyes, a single, euphoric tear tracing down his cheek. 

"Thank you for this honour Mother. I couldn't ask for more."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

"And yet you give so much, and will give more then you know." 

The woman removes a hand from his face to lift the long dark veil, exposing her jade eyes and dark hair, the long, proud face looking not a day older then Karkats own mother. 

She takes up his arm, and with teeth sharper then any butcher's knife, nicks his wrist.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

The thrill of fear and excitement that flashes through him is enough to make his knees weak. She licks off the drop of blood from his skin and smiles softly. 

"You may go back to your chambers now. We will prepare for your proper induction by the next new moon. Until then, be safe and be well my child."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

Karkat bows, and tries to keep his proper balance as he exists the hall. Faces pass him in the halls, scents, sights. Hes searching, among those gathered here. He's never seen this many vampires together in one place. 

He wonders where Dave and Rose as, and then thinks better of finding them just now because he's got an idea of where they are. 

His room is cozy as ever, and he sits heavily on the bed.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

It's almost to much to process. He'd come to terms with becoming a vampire, and had tried to come to terms with what that meant for him. To be told now that he wasn't going to have to leave his humanity behind him, it's enough to send him reeling.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

He slowly lays back in the bed. Hes still fully dressed, and dawn isn't even close. But he feels like the weight of the world is resting now on his shoulders, yet so light he could fly away by closing his eyes and wishing. 

He's frightened a little. But mostly, he wants to be with his friends. His other brides. He wants their arms.

Evidentially the bed wants him more.

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

Karkat wakes up when his door opens and someone flings themselves bodily on top of him.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

"Oomp-Dave-" Karkat wheezes out as the man on top of him starts babbling, smile wide on his face and dark bruising from feedings along his neck seeming to not make one bit of difference. 

"They just told us - well, Rose told me, the Mother Fortis had called for her, must have been right after you left, and you didn't even tell us first you naughty thing, honestly, what are we to you, a brick wall? Anyway she told another Mother and then Rose told me, and I was trying to find you, you weren't at the celebrations, we were looking and looking, and getting pulled into people looking for a bite, and - fuck, Karkat, it's true isn't it? Its..all true?"

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

Karkat manages to sit himself up, Dave falling into his lap as he does. He puts his arms around the slender man's hips. 

"It's all true, the Mothers asked me to become a bride. I took the oath last night."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

Dave's eyes still relflect the glee Karakts so rarely seen in them, though his face falls into somethung a little quieter now. 

His fingers find Karkats shirt, toying with the buttons as he likes to do. Karkats not sure if he wants something, but he thinks he'd be willing to give the bride anything he wanted. They have all the time in the world now, but Karkat never wants that light to leave Dave's eyes. 

"..It's always just been me 'n Rose. People come into the coven, and we 'wed' them, and then..they're gone."

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

"I know, but I'm not leaving. I'll be with both of you until the day I die. I promise."

Dave laughs softly and nuzzles his neck. "you don't have to be so Dramatic 'kat."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)08/18/2020

"The day I stop being a dramatic ass is the day you and your sister stop being double-teaming, scheaming little assholes," Karkat scoffs, leaving his head back. 

He makes an executive decision it's still too early to show his face and he pulls Dave down to the bed with him. "Where is she by the way? With Kanaya still?"

Berd Alert (Cassa)08/18/2020

Dave kisses him before responding, sweet and soft.

"Yes, Kanaya chose her as her bride, so shes still at the party. That just means I get you all to myself."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author Think here - the jam continued in dms for a while after this point, but it was quite loose and not conducive to a concentrated plot with a beginning, middle, and end. Karkat becoming a Bride is the climax of this tale, and this is the formal point where the jam ends.
> 
> Thank you to anyone who is reading these, and enjoying these story ideas with us sofar!


	12. The Empty Hand: Origins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave has come down with a rather unfortunate illness. It's incurable, and anything modern medicine does can only meagerly hold off the inevitable. 
> 
> His husband, renowned biomolecular engineer, will have to take matters into his own hands. 
> 
> Or, what remains of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We don't normally do superhero aus, soooooo have this lol. Berd proposed something based off Mr. Freeze's backstory in Batman, and this was born. :>

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:03 AM

I have a very vivid image of Dave and Equius, married, in their kitchen. Dave is about to speak, but his eyes suddenly go unfocused and he falls to the ground. Equius catches him, asking panickedly what's wrong. But Dave's already passed out.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 11:34 AM

is this for any specific au?

tho, Dave with epilepsy

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:06 PM

the au was Dr. Freeze Style Eq

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:07 PM

ahhh right

Equius at hospital: pls help D: 

hospital: how big is your paycheck lol

Equius: pulling Weird Science Gadget: how long do you want your life to be

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:10 PM

They basically tel him Dave is going to die, to which Equius responds... poorly

and takes him home, where he can keep him alive and safe while he works on a cure

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:12 PM

Stumbles upon...kinda a solution? The thing Dave needs to live (thought not uncomatose) is insanely dangerous to handle outside of specific lab conditions, hard to produce, and the elements to make it are insanely expensive

Equius don't got that kinda money

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:16 PM

It's so frustrating, having the solution right there and not being able to take it

so...

he takes it by force

it works, it stabilizes his husband. The cost is acceptable. He can live with the guilt of blood on his hands, If it means saving Dave

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:18 PM

What if Dave can be conscious for periods

And doesn't know what Equius does to get him the medicine

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:20 PM

Yessssz

He wakes groggy and confused, in their bed. Equius is always there with him

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:22 PM

Equius is so careful with him. Gentle hands wishing him good morning.

Dave always wants to see Equius's lab

what new little thing he's working on

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:24 PM

He always tells him that they'll look some other time. When he's well again

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:25 PM

He cant bear the thought of Dave seeing the mess it is. Abandoned passion projects, ethical and interesting, for the processing space for his medicine. The locks. The darkness, the endless, maddening research.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:28 PM

The bodies

The research he's stolen revealed why the drug wasn't on the market

It requires a specific component only procured from the freshly dead

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:31 PM

In its rawest form, it's deadly. Poison, and Equius's hands under the gloves are getting scarred and arthritic and painful. 

Processed, it's like manna, but so little at a time. They sustain Dave for a day, it's weeks of harvesting.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:39 PM

He can't stand just leaving Dave in a coma while he tries to produce enough to cure him fully

So they're stuck

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:40 PM

And Equius's illicit activity is attracting attention

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:41 PM

He can't afford to get caught. If he does, it's over

They'll take Dave and put him in a hospital, and he'll die within a month

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:44 PM

(if we're going with a somewhat superheroverse..) Equius's research and dealings get noticed by a fair number of villains

Some interested in the serum, some wondering if they've got competition, others wanting to team up

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:45 PM

He avoids them mostly

But one catches his eye.

A sniper, offering to provide the corpses he needs (it's Eridan)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:47 PM

He doesn't interact with the triggerhappy lunatic about morals or why he's doing what he's doing

He doesn't need to

Eridan is,,kinda Ivy esqu, but like, Insmouthways

Something something lab accident makes him fish-faced like we know him to be, something dark will rise and humanity is just ants, you get it

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:49 PM

Ye

He takes pleasure in killing, something Equius never did

But dealing with the bodies is tiresome so he simply passes them off to someone else

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:51 PM

Eridan is, of course, interested in what exactly the cloaked and nighthidded graverobber is doing with all that flesh

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 1:54 PM

When Equius eventually tells him, Eridan laughs.

"All that meat, just to keep your little wife breathing another day? I may be a killer but that's  _ cruel, _ Eq."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 1:55 PM

(oo F)

The man unzips the bag on the sterile metal table, the white, bleaching lights a beacon in the darkness of the surrounding lab. He rolls up his sleeves and tightens his gloves, the mask on his face as black as the room. 

"I've found that the difference between kindness and cruelty is distinguishing shades of grey. Any man who claims to know either has neve lost more than he can afford to lose. Leave me."

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:04 PM

"If you insist."

Eridan hops off his perch, straightening his jacket.

"Just don't blame me wwhen this all comes crashing dowwn. The people at the asylum don't care a lick about your morals. Trust me. I knoww."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:11 PM

Yes. Equius knows, the infamous Feltman Asylum for the Criminally Insane. How the place manages to stay afloat is even more ethically dubious then his actions that may land him there. 

But they won't. He'll make sure of it.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:12 PM

(I kinda wanna send him there lol)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:14 PM

(it will be kicking and screaming and half-killing as many super'heros' who take him there as he can)

He'll accuse them of murder

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:17 PM

He almost gives up hope. Dave is dead, there's no way he's not.

And then he gets a call from a friend.

_ "Howw's hell on earth treating you?" _

"Eridan?"

_ "Yea it's me. I havve someone wwho wwants ta talk to ya." _

There's a rustling, and then-

_ "Equius?" _

Dave's voice, tired and pained. But it's him.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:22 PM

The poison of the zendren serum had done a number on Equius. His hands, his arms, are black. But, thanks to the nature of zendren, not necrotic. In his moments in his cell, alone and listening to the howling of other prisoners - men like him - he watches as they..flash. Glitch before his eyes, living with something he keeps to himself, under the medical gloves the facility keeps him in to stop him from spreading it to anyone else (despite him explaining that it doesn't work like that, you paranoid fools..)

Said hands now clutch the plastic office phone like a lifeline, creaking under his hold. True, he's never felt more alive. 

"Dave," he breathes.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:26 PM

"Where are you? You're... Friend woke me and said you'd be gone for a while."

Dave sounds uncertain of the word "friend". Which is fair. A year ago Equius would have not so much as looked at the man with anything but fear and disgust.

Funny how things change.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:33 PM

"...I'm-" 

Equius looks at the guards to the media center. The area is pitiful small, quite literally a few cells with the walls knocked out between them and redone like a plain office space, the carpet showing brown stains and holes punched through the plaster on the walls never fixed, a single computer with nothing connecting it to the internet...probably not even to the network of the asylum. For good reason of course..

And a phone, which his lethargic, corpselike behavior - ie, 'good' - has earned him the right to use for fifteen minutes today, since someone's calling him. 

Their eyes are obscured through the riot masks, bodies at rest as Equius laying witout moving in his cell for weeks has hardly been deemed a true problem case, but still ready to tell him time's up. 

"...I - I'm indisposed, my love, my heart, oh, darling are you well? How are you feeling? You shouldn't push yourself when I'm not there to help-"

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:36 PM

"I'm fine, Equius, I am. Or... As fine as I can be. There's not much of the medicine you gave me left. Please, tell me you'll be home soon? I miss you so much."

He can hear Eridan scoffing in the background, can imagine the glare Dave flings at him.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:44 PM

He's holding the phone so hard it hurts - his hands tingling with pin pricks all the way up to his shoulders, his chest, feeling like it's caving in. How he longs for his husband, his little ruby, a gem above all others, who he'd die for - kill for. 

Never ask for forgiveness from, hoping to never taint the love of Dave's soul with his hellish actions. 

"I don't, know - listen to me, Dave, David," Equius says, mumbling. He feels - off, all off, like a rising black panic at the thought of the little vials with the glowing substance dwindling away to the last drops, and Dave falling, knees giving out, eyes growing dim- "I don't know when I can be back. Don't - Eridan has been..doing me some favors, but if he tells you anything.."

He's panting, hard. His hands are like claws around the phone - something is creeping through the protective layer of the gloves, something dark. He feels high and cold. 

"There are things I have to explain, something I - did. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..."

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 2:48 PM

"Times up." The guard steps forward, and Equius-

Well. It's hard to explain what happened after that. All he remembers is everything going dark for a moment, and then the guard laying dead on the floor. His hands... Itch. It's the only way he can describe the almost painful tingling radiating through them.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 2:56 PM

He rips off the gloves and 

it's not his hands. 

Equius stares, the already pale light of the room flickering spastically as he eyes 

something. 

(It's like looking at a black hole. The light itself bends around them, holes in reality, unknowable-)

Someone is shouting, an alarm going off. The guard that didn't get hit with - whatever he did is calling for backup into his walkie at his shoulder, something about a Code Ace violation-

The light warps again, and Equius cringes back as the holes in the world flex their fingers, pain like lightning, and like folding a page of a book, the next moments come instantaneously without the connecting seconds. The guard is dead on the ground, and the room is black.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:03 PM

When he wakes, he finds himself in a different cell. He can't move, restrained somehow. 

His hands feel normal again, but when he looks he finds they've been wrapped in some kind of mesh. At least they don't look like black holes anymore.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:11 PM

It's..quiet. At least. 

The anxiety in his gut is not longer the carving of a knife, but still the ache of panic remains. He's sure his call had been cut short. He hadn't even gotten a chance to tell Dave goodbye..

Equius's tears are bitter and silent as they streak his face and wet his hair. 

There's the sound of the door opening, and someone stepping in. 

Equius looks up into a masked face as it peers down at him.

(not a doctor, a..someone else in the super community, I think)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:13 PM

(ye.. hmm. Who's the superhero type)

(Jake?)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:14 PM

(possibly)

(could also be an antihero like Bro, who might be looking for Eridan and just kinda heard about the Weird Shit going on at the asylum)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:14 PM

(oooh)

He's seen this man on TV, from before. His Mask is sharp edged, practically cutting into his face.

"Well well. What have we here? A rogue scientist? You don't look well, Mr. Zahhak."

(Dave is Bro's kid in this still?)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:19 PM

(he..could be)

(not sure if Bro has any actual powers, or if he's just batmanning it up lmao)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:20 PM

(batmanning for sure. Dave was estranged but he was aware his son was married to a "Dr. Zahhak"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:25 PM

Equius stares up at the mask, empty. Th electronic voice produced. 

"..Puppeteer," he acknowledges. "..I'm afraid you've caught me at a bad time."

Already his eyes dart about the room around him. Are there invisible razor wires strung about? Snares? The scenes left behind from fights with the antiwarrior were grizzly as they were elegant.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:26 PM

(For some reason I am picturing Equius being suspended upside down from the ceiling)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:26 PM

(ah yes. That's a much better batman verse setup kfjsfj)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:28 PM

"I can see that. Tell me. How does a respectable engineer such as yourself end up in a place like this?"

The hero walks closer, observing his restraints. 

"You killed three people yesterday. Good men. Why?"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:41 PM

Equius narrows his tired eyes. He's had this conversation with the police, a judge, the asylum psychiatric staff more times then he can count. The words have worn thin. 

And the knowledge that his love lives still, that there is that tenuous thread of hope left..

"I couldn't tell you the how if I wanted to. No to be rude, but this place doesn't exactly possess the conditions fit for self-examination into areas of unknown biological and possibly astrophysical sciences." 

He pauses, swaying slightly in his restraints. 

"And the why I hardly think to be any of your business."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 3:53 PM

(me: I don't care for superhero aus

me now: through equidave all things are possible so jot that down)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 3:53 PM

(lmaoooo)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:27 PM

"Oh it is my buisness. I need to know for the sake of the city if I should put you down now, or wait to see how this shakes out."

He walks closer, Hand hovering over Equius' head. The pulse module on his goggle is active. He will kill Equius if he says the wrong thing

(can't wait for bro to find out Equius is keeping his son in a semi comatose state)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:30 PM

(Bro: ..................................................hwhat

Equius: I panicked)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 4:38 PM

After the past few months, Equius isn't sure he would care with what his new ordinary had become. Waking felt like a failure. He'd assumed Dave dead, so he of course would have wanted to join him in whatever world awaited him after this one. 

But Dave was not dead. 

And he needed the zendren. Which, unless Eridan could unravel the intricacies of molecular engineering from hazy scrawlings in notebooks and computer codes, or even cared about doing so if he could, Dave would be without very, very soon. 

His arms are aching again, contained in their sleeves. 

It's soundless when Equius flexes....whatever the hell it is, again. 

It's like a shockwave hits the room, a silent hammer of the purest element of being coming down on the space and Puppeteer is knocked askew, gravity obeying a new master as he blinks and is displaced time to the left. 

Equius groans in the aftermath...still restrained. His face is screwed up with the ache radiating like fire. 

"...The substance..I've been using to keep..my husband alive...has had...aftereffects on those..handling its unprocessed form.."

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 4:45 PM

Puppeteer hisses, getting to his feet. 

"What the fuck!?"

Equius laughs. It sounds deranged in his own ears, half chokes in pain and desperation. 

"You have no idea... what I am capable of. I will do anything- to keep him safe-"

The aching gets worse, and there's a horrendous _ riiiipp _ as the mesh comes free.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:07 PM

(idea, people killed with his ability produce better and more potent zendren)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:14 PM

(ooofff)

(yess)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:16 PM

(he goes after corporate CEO's of big pharma)

Very much a Hannibal 'eat the rude' scenario)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:18 PM

oh yea

Bro and Equius have a fight here

Bro wants to know what Equius did to Dave

(also sad - Dave never knows where the zendren) comes from, only that Equius makes it and sends it to him, but insists he cannot visit..)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:19 PM

He's afraid to come home, now that he can literally kill with a single touch

Bro eventually finds what used to be their home. Equius hasn't returned in months. Eridan fucked off as soon as Dave was stable, and Dave is so so lonely

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:24 PM

Dave isn't exactly normal after all that serum either

but it's coming slower

Dave cant leave the house, either

he's tethered there with machines keeping him stable

Eridan could have also scrammed bc..something Happened with Dave

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:26 PM

Dave starts to Flicker. His body moves through time at random

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:28 PM

While Equius can move other things, Dave moves himself

but with much less control

Bro considers contacting some team of actual heros for this

bc with how Zahhak is tearing across the world, untraceable until he's left blood in his wake, finding his reason is a find in a million

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:31 PM

Dave is Exceedingly surprised to see his Dad at the door

moreso when he says he needs him to call Equius and bring him here.

"Why? Of course I want him home, but you certainly seem to have a vested interest in it. Is he okay?"

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:39 PM

"Perfectly," Bro answers. He stays in the entryway, glad when the door shuts behind him, closing off the amount of eyes that could be watching from out there. 

In his line of business, it's dangerous to assume no one's watching. 

_ "Now, remember, we need him to agree. You can't scare him off or let him think something's up,"  _ comes the voice in his ear. The Marksman had explained it to him two dozen times. Dave was the honeypot to lure The Empty Hand out of his voidy hiding hole.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:43 PM

He nods, then remembers the man can't actually see him. 

"R-right. Are you sure this is going to work?"

the phone in his hand is cold, and he feels the same chill in his bones. He can't believe his sweet, gentle husband has become the monster they tell him he has. That he kills without a second thought, with hands that are more black hole than flesh.

(>:))) Equius is gonna be so devastated)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 5:54 PM

"It's got to," The older Englishman says through the communication device. Dave's mouth is dry. 

Equius gave him a specific...way to contact him. A series of numbers and coordinates, seemingly generated at random. Chaos. 

Only when Dave was in trouble. Emergency.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 5:56 PM

He opens the file. today it shows somewhere in China. He taps the number at the bottom and the phone begins to ring. 

He prays that Equius doesn't pick up.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:01 PM

There's static. An odd intonation as he hopes, hopes in his deteriorating, brilliant mind he won't see it, or hear it, it will be at a bad time-

Something clicks and the screen goes black. 

Dave sits back, loose in relief-

**Dave? What's wrong?**

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:03 PM

He feels a chill run through him, or maybe its just another flicker. 

"I'm not sure, Something is wrong with the machine, and my medicine. It stopped working."

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:07 PM

(I adore this btw, I don't normally like superhero aus)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:07 PM

(I knoooooow it' so good!)

(I think it helps we're not focusing on the heros and cool powers mch)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:07 PM

(the tragedy of Equius Zahhak is far more compelling)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:12 PM

Dave holds the wires of said machine that dig into his skin tightly. They pump a potent mix into his bloodstream of zendren and other things he can't begin to pronounce. 

The men and women who kept the world safe said they had been able to come up with a better serum - something that would last longer, keep the seizures and...whatever happened to him when he blacked out and was Somewhere Else from happening. 

They would keep him safe from the man who wanted to save him. 

Again, the voice comes - but impossible to tell from a speaker or - his own head, booming in the air but with no sound. 

**..**

Please no, please no, Equius don't-

**Stay where you are. Don't move, darling.**

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:15 PM

"...okay."

He wouldn't be able to move regardless, frozen in fear as he is. 

_ "Good job Lad. We're right outside, stay calm. This will be over soon." _

Tears begin to slide down Dave's face, and he doesn't respond.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:22 PM

He's not seen Equius since..well, the last time he saw him. 

Since before he was taken away, and sent to Feltman...killed three people, and then went on the run. 

  
  
  


He's terrifying. 

The Empty Hand appears like gravity crushing itself to fold into the correct shape of a man like a key for a hole through space itself. Dave feels sick, terrified, breathless as it happens. 

He stares into empty goggles and a skeletal, ghoulish black mask, long raven hair in a messy ponytail.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:24 PM

He looks at Dave, sees his terrified expression, and quickly pulls off his mask. He looks so tired. Skinny and gaunt, black veins trailing along his cheeks and jaw. But his expression is soft enough. Trusting. 

"I'm sorry... I am so sorry Equius."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:32 PM

;-;

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:33 PM

(im just imagining what Equius is seeing right now. there's nothing obviously wrong, but dave is crying and holding his arm)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:37 PM

Nothing happens. 

Dave's not sure what he's expecting, but the seconds tick on. There is no sound from the device concealed in his ear, no noise from the man who was once his father from high above in the dark, tomblike room. 

Equus steps forward, eyes on Dave. His arm, his face. 

His gloved hands come up. 

They trail nothingness in their wake, and when Dave flinches, the man stops, and his soft expression crumbles. 

He's shaking his head. "..You've done nothing wrong, dearest.."

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:43 PM

Dave just shakes his head and repeats himself. 

"I am so, so sorry. For everything. This would never have happened if I hadn't-"

What? Hadn't gotten sick? Hadn't spent months in and out of consciousness, barely clinging to life? It's not like he had known.

He makes a quiet little sound, broken, and reaches out for Equius' hand.

"I'm sorry. please, try not to hate me."

The door bursts open, and Dave shuts his eyes.

(T-T)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 6:50 PM

"...Dave?" 

It's so small, and lost. 

Hands grab him up. Dave doesn't open his eyes. 

_ "DAVE!"  _

He's hauled back. His machine - the tubes and wires that have kept him alive with dogged persistence, hope, grief, bloodletting - are pulled out. He feels cold, and dizzy. They said he'll be ok, they'll make sure of it. 

**_DA V E_ **

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 6:58 PM

everything is dark, cold. He's in the Other Place. the place he goes when the seizures hit, and everything goes strange. He opens his eyes but it does him no good. He can't see here. 

But he can hear. A low, loud sound like far off sirens. Like screaming. The sharp rap of gunfire. A snap, a bone chilling crunch-

He's on the floor. Shivering, hardly able to sit up. The room comes back in pieces around him. The shattered table, the bullet holes in the plaster of the wall. The high wail of the machine, mangled on the floor.

He's alone. No sign of his husband or the heros who attacked him.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:40 PM

(this poor boy)

(Dave and the Horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:48 PM

(dave and the 'so, what does your husband do for a living?')

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 7:49 PM

(He kills people to fabricate a deadly drug that keeps me alive)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 7:49 PM

('.....COOL, rick here is in marketing!')

Dave rises to his feet, cold and shaking and barely able to stand. He feels like he's going to come apart at the seams, like he could collapse again with one wrong move. 

Glass crunches under his feet as he takes a step, and then another. 

It's freezing, his breath rising above him. 

A faint dusting of snow falls from a massive hole above him, the rest of the house above blown to smithereens.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:00 PM

He shivers. Its cold, and getting colder. there's no sign of anyone around. 

They left him. 

He wants to cry, to scream and rage at the sky for the cruel joke that is his life. Instead, he curls into a ball and starts to shake. He feels fuzzy all over, and the world is phasing in and out of focus. He's going to pass out again. He'll probably die in a few hours. 

"Dave!"

His husband's voice is far away, he must have imagined it

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:01 PM

(ok, place your bets now, folks - alternate reality?)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:01 PM

(More like Dave Time travelled)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:02 PM

(I did figure that, but I was trying to figure out how far he went, and why is Equius here)

(so I was like, daves time powers and equius's spacial powers make for reality hopping)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:03 PM

(Three days, and Equius managed to escape)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:03 PM

H OK

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:03 PM

(tru)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:04 PM

Dave doesn't have much strength to lift his head. It wobbles as he looks, sure it's just a delusion, or imagining-

He's waking with a limp. 

Half his face is bandaged. 

It's Equius.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:08 PM

He closes the gap between them faster than any man should be able to, his clear eye brimming with dark tears. He scoops Dave into his arms and holds him close.

"Dave, my darling, my love, you're alright."

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:18 PM

Dave doesn't know what to say - can barely get out the choked apologies. 

He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to say. How to tell them how it made him feel to be a lure for his husband. The man he loves. 

He tucks himself into Equius's arms. 

"I-I-I w-w-went s-o-omewhe-e-re.." he says.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:27 PM

"You disappeared. They thought I'd hurt you- oh, Dave."

He kisses Dave's forehead.

"You were gone for three days."

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:46 PM

these poor kids man. Equius just wants his husband back

Also, how much has he lost his mind for real?

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:48 PM

..like, 40%?

Idk man, like I said, he's like Poison Ivy

he's sane, he's just

adjusted his priorities

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:49 PM

yeah

This poor dude. He spent three days thinking that Dave, who he did all this for, is dead

those were bad Days

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:50 PM

The supers can't keep someone like him locked up forever

Equius's chain keeps getting yanked jfasjf

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:50 PM

(Also Eridan's villain name is Wellerman)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:51 PM

( HA )

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:51 PM

He murdered all his guards and escaped.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:51 PM

(why do I get the feeling this is going to be a rogues gallery lol)

what if Equius asks Dave to come with them

he can build him a portable pump

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 8:56 PM

Dave is not happy with this option, but. What choice does he have? He can't stay away from Equius anymore, not if it means being used against him again

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 8:58 PM

They tour the world. Equius has some connections, now. People who, in return for his brains and magic with molecules (as well as his abilities) will give them places to live.

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 9:03 PM

For Dave, an american who never so much as had a passport, its amazing. Even if he's still sick, at least he can spend what little time he has left with the man he loves

the new device for his medication is a cuff, which the cocktail can be administered through

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 9:05 PM

(Bad Ending Theory)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 9:05 PM

(ooo)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 9:06 PM

(Dave's body eventually shreds itself and his spirit becomes lost in time, creating anomalies all over the globe and it's timeline. There are those supers who track it)

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 9:07 PM

(oh nooo)

(yes, thats what happened. Later, they find the man they used to call the Empty Hand, broken and dead to the world)

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 9:10 PM

anyway

Equius's death creates a black hole

tiny one tho

they have to keep it contained through wacky science shenanigans

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 9:14 PM

He just,,, stops wanting to live when Dave dies

He held Dave in his arms as his body started to break down. Dave had told him he loved him, that he was gonna be okay without him. Equius had begged him to stay.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 9:17 PM

Dave cannot

it is simply how it is

He asks that Equius not try to make him stay

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 9:19 PM

Equius agrees, begrudgingly. He'd extended his husband's life by almost 25 years. It was time to let go. 

He wants to die himself when Dave finally goes. Eridan attempts comfort, but it's hollow.

Thinker (themarginalthinker)Today at 9:21 PM

"You should leave," he tells the Wellerman. "I hold no grudges against you, and I don't want you immediatly harmed."

Eridan raises an eyebrow. "What are you intending to do?" 

Equius is stripping off his gloves, his coat, his shirt. 

"Whatever it compels me."

Berd Alert (Cassa)Today at 9:22 PM

Eridan goes. He sees on the news later that the building was destroyed by a gravitational anomaly.

He has a drink, for fallen friends.


End file.
